Here's a Bluesfest riddle.

What do you get when a white woman plays guitar and sings like an old black guy?

The blues.

Okay, maybe it's not the funniest one-liner; more an all-too-neat summary of local blues hero Sue Foley, who appears at the Ottawa Bluesfest Southern Stage Sunday at 6:45 p.m.

First, she's got a great new album called Where The Action Is.

If you're trying to negotiate the seeming contradiction of groovy blues, a couple of spins on the turntable answers that in short order.

BY THE THROAT

So it's not Robert Johnson, singing about never been so low, but Foley's music grabs you by the throat.

"All the action's on the record," she says. "I'm at a good place in my life right now, everything's going great, so I don't feel the need to get heavy."

Produced by another Canadian hero on the blues and folk scene, Colin Linden, the album is a very sympatico mix of rock and blues that's become Foley's "sound," a furiously sexy blend of originals with tongue-in-cheek covers like that of The Stones's Stupid Girl.

"The whole record is fun to play," says Foley from her rural home outside town. "It's more rock 'n' roll, more fun."

The ballsy chemistry didn't happen overnight. Foley's been playing for 20 of her 34 years. In 1990, she moved to Austin, Tex., where she played with local legends for almost nine years.

Foley started her career playing punk pop but needed more nourishment, the kind of musical muscle she discovered the first time she heard Muddy Waters.

HONEST MUSIC

"I was drawn to the music's honesty, its truthfulness," she recalls of her early days. "Pop just felt like one big lie after another.

"You start playing the blues by emulating the greats," Foley explains. "You play them long enough, you teach yourself the blues. Eventually, you play your own blues."

Foley, who moved back to the region after the birth of her child, is seriously toying with the idea of moving back to Nashville, where Where The Action Is was recorded, during the winter months.

"The whole southern feeling got into me and stayed," said Foley.

"I learned how to play loose and groovy from the local players, of playing behind the beat, not slow, just with real intensity."

As far as appearing at this year's blues festival, Foley admits to having mixed feelings.

"I love playing at home, but it's hard playing a blues festival when there isn't one headliner who's blues."