by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Sue Foley is a hot chick blues artist who I interviewed prior to the Springing the Blues Fest. So, I made a special trip into the early afternoon festival to catch her act. Sue is from Canada and this was her first trip to Jax Beach. In our telephone conversation, I said it had been hot and to bring her bathing suit. But when I met her backstage it was a cool 60 degrees with a icy breeze off the ocean. "Well, I'm sorry if you brought your bathing suit, we had a freak cold spell." I said to her. "Oh, that's alright, I wasn't planning to go swimming anyway. But I'm here to rock," she quipped.
Ms. Foley is petite and gorgeous, looking ten years younger than 39. Her limited-range old-timey voice sounds like those old blues records of a bygone era. But make no mistake, this gal has hot chops on guitar and her voice fits her style. She travels with a bare minimum trio, scaled down to present her eclectic selection of blues rock and rockabilly. Her latest album, New Used Car is a hook heavy collection of Sue's original songs that cover the gamut of her exceptional body of work.
Remarkably, there was large crowd at 2:45 pm when Sue went on, and they reacted with wild abandon to her smoking performance. She said she was big with guys in their fifties, of which there were many in the audience. However, there were a fair number of young people who liked Sue's rocking style as well. Sue's set was a retrospective of her massive repertoire of original material over a twenty-five year career on the road in Europe and in the States.
Sue played some songs from her Back to the Blues album, which showcases Sue's roots blues sound, on Gone Blind she soloed on her road-worn Telecaster. As far as I could tell, she only brought one guitar with no backup, which shows her confidence in that decorated Fender. Halfway through her set, she had the crowd yelling and screaming her name. Sue's biggest asset is her distinctive voice and sound, which immediately identifies her and her music.
Indeed, I was glad I had made the trip to see her set. She delivered everything I had hoped for and more. My plan was to go home, feed and walk my dogs and return for Tab Benoit's set at 8:45 pm. On the walk back to the car, I stopped by the West Stage to catch some of Conrad Oberg's set. Man, I hardly recognized him. Heck, he was just a little kid the last time I saw him. Now he's grown into a tall skinny teenager who was playing traditional blues with his trio. Conrad is a musical prodigy who picked up guitar a couple of years ago after learning to play the piano at age six.
Like Ray Charles, Conrad was performing at age ten. He is legally blind but that doesn't stop him from learning anything in a short time. Conrad's dad Michael fully supports his musical ambitions which helps Conrad get ahead. I was glad he finally got to play Springing the Blues. He deserved to be there.
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