Stony Plain
Records Signs Acclaimed Canadian Roots Guitarist/Singer Sue Foley and Will
Release Her Label Debut CD, The Ice Queen, March 2, 2018
Special Guests
on New Disc Include Jimmie Vaughan, Z.Z. Top’s Billy F Gibbons and
Charlie Sexton
EDMONTON, AB – Stony Plain Records announces the signing of
acclaimed Canadian roots guitarist/singer Sue Foley, and will release her label
debut CD, The Ice Queen, on March 2, 2018.
Produced by Mike Flanigin, who also plays organ on the new
disc, The Ice Queen was recorded at Firestation Studios in San
Marcos, Texas. Joining Sue Foley as special guests is a trio of legendary Texas
guitarslingers – Jimmie Vaughan, Z.Z.Top’s Billy F Gibbons and Charlie Sexton -
as well as a host of other Lone Star State all-stars, including Chris “Whipper”
Layton (formerly of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble) and George Rains
(drums), Derek O’Brien (guitar), Chris Maresh and Billy Horton (bass) and The
Texas Horns: John Mills, Al Gomez, Jimmy Shortell, Randy Zimmerman and Mark “Kaz”
Kazanoff.
“I’m extremely excited to be working with Holger
Petersen and Stony Plain Records,” Sue Foley says about the new CD. “Holger is
one of the most knowledgeable ‘real music’ people in the business. Stony Plain
is known to put out great music and I know The Ice Queen has
found her home.”
Sue Foley is the only female member of the famed “Jungle Show,”
featuring Billy Gibbons, Jimmie Vaughan, Mike Flanigin and Chris Layton, which
became one of the hottest tickets in Austin in 2016. Soon after playing two
sold out shows at Austin City Limits Live 3TEN Club in December, Foley entered
the studio with her Texan pals and began laying down tracks for the new album. She will return to Austin for more of “The Jungle Shows” on
December 26 and 27 at Antone's.
Recorded
throughout 2017, The Ice Queen represents Foley’s full
circle journey – her return to the roots of her career in Austin with
producer Mike Flanigin. The album was recorded with her long-time friends and
collaborators Vaughan, Gibbons, Layton, Sexton and others, as well as members
of the Tedeschi Trucks and Gary Clark Jr. bands.
“When I was a
teenager I idolized Jimmie Vaughan and Billy F Gibbons,” Foley says. “They're
both legends now so this feels like an historical event (at least it does for
me). And I grew up sitting at the feet of players like George ‘Big Beat’ Rains,
Derek O'Brien and The Texas Horns. I spent many nights watching Charlie Sexton
and the Arc Angels with Chris Layton. I learned and grew more musically in my
years in Austin than at any point in my life. The fact that all these mega
talented musicians have graced my album is beyond anything I hoped for. I am
still pinching myself.”
A
flood of inspiration and themes can be found on each of the tracks – ranging
from lost love, anguish, and struggle to
release, forgiveness and rebirth. Mostly recorded live in the studio,
Foley’s emotional vocal delivery, conviction, accessible yet inspired lyrics
and intrepid guitar playing are all laid out, bare and raw for the songs to
reveal.
Opening with the radio friendly, funky, swamp-meets Bo
Diddley beat of “Come to Me,” The Ice Queen also features the
upbeat and rollicking tracks “Run,”
“The Lucky Ones” (a duet with Jimmie Vaughan) and “Gaslight.” There are several
bluesy and soulful tracks, including “81,” “The Ice Queen,” (with its menacing
John Lee Hooker vibe in tone and substance), “Fool's Gold” (featuring Billy F
Gibbons on vocals and harmonica), “If I Have Forsaken You” (with the horns
sounding echoes of the great Bobby “Blue” Bland), and a cheeky, guitar-heavy
cover of Bessie Smith’s “Send Me To The ‘Lectric Chair.” Foley also provides
some more mellow and unexpected songs on The Ice Queen with the
jazzy “Death of a Dream,” the flamenco-blues hybrid “The Dance” (which
showcases her acoustic guitar work) and a beautiful cover of the Carter
Family’s “Cannonball Blues.”
Sue
Foley is a multi-award-winning musician and one of the finest blues and roots
artists working today. She is a veritable triple-threat of musical talent as a
guitarist, songwriter and vocalist. As with many blues women of the past, Foley
has a long history of defying convention, and being a positive role model for
aspiring, young female musicians.
She
has been working professionally since the age of 16, and by the age of 21,
Foley had relocated to Austin, Texas, and began recording for Antone’s, the
esteemed blues label and historic nightclub that helped launch the career of
Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others. In the two decades that have followed, Sue
Foley has been busy touring and recording steadily, all while toting her
signature pink paisley Fender Telecaster. In 2001, she won the prestigious
Juno Award (Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) and also holds the record for
the most Maple Blues Awards in Canada and has earned three Trophees de Blues de
France. She has also garnered several nominations at the Blues Music Awards
from The Blues Foundation.
The Ice Queen represents Sue Foley’s
indefatigable commitment to her craft, and her transparency with the journey
that birthed her, further proving that you can’t keep a good blueswoman down, particularly when she is The
Ice Queen.
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