 |
"I'm searching for something away from this scene," Sue Foley purrs on Make it Real, one of a dozen slices of urban blues from New Used Car, the stalwart local artist's first studio effort in four years.
The song is one of two new songs co-written by Foley and Lynn Miles, another Ottawan known to have uttered those same words in the past. Foley estimates she was 16 when she first met the consummate singer-songwriter.
"I have loosely followed her career," Foley says of Miles. "We've been through a lot of the same ups and downs. And we both came home to Ottawa around the same time."
Roughly. Miles' Los Angeles adventure actually came sometime after Foley came home from Austin, Tex., in 1996. But it's hardly surprising the two women should feel a kinship between them. And that like Miles, Foley continues to search for something away from this scene, but is happy to return to Ottawa.
Or, in Foley's case, Perth. The guitar woman moved there a year ago, reasoning she could offer her young son a little more for less in the picturesque town. She had come home to Ottawa for essentially the same reason.
She'll be playing both home towns this weekend, with a CD-release show slated for Barrymore's Music Hall tomorrow night and another in Perth's Farrell Hall the following evening. At each show, Foley will be accompanied by her touring band of six years -- bassist Mike Turenne, keyboardist Graham Guest and drummer Tom Bona.
And this time around, those who opt to pick up Foley's new studio album will hear the same band on the CD.
"A lot of producers want to take you away from the band and have you work with studio musicians," Foley says. "That might give you something in terms of virtuoso playing, but I really wanted to work with my touring band. We know each other, we're comfortable with each other.
"And I set out to make a pretty self-directed CD -- just do it quietly on our own and then present it to the label."
Foley, her band and co-producer Corey Macfadyen recorded New Used Car in Montreal last summer. Foley estimates the crew spent a mere six days in the studio, recording essentially live off the floor. When they presented it to Justin Time Records, the artist says with a smile, "they were happy."
As well they should be. Ten albums into a career that began 15 years ago with the primitive-if-promising, appropriately titled Young Girl Blues, Foley has matured into an artist who knows how to get full value out of her raspy vocals and lyrical guitar work.
Moreover, despite calling on consummate "craftsperson" Miles to act as "song doctor" for two of the album's 11 originals, Foley has developed into a formidable songwriter, channeling her love of the blues into the bluesy minor-key masterpiece Mother and the melancholy solo-acoustic confession Long Tomorrow.
"It's the only thing I've ever created that I thought had a chance at airplay," Foley says. "I'd like to see that happen, especially as I'm sure the next thing I do will be completely different."
Foley ponders her expression of ambition.
"Really," she adds, "I just hope the right ears find it."
She's gearing up for a year of bringing the music to those ears as she always has -- through a hectic touring schedule that includes dates across Canada and the U.S. in addition to shows in Europe.
And, somewhere in the midst of it all, Foley hopes to complete her Guitar Woman project -- a documentary for which Foley has amassed some 50 interviews with musicians over a five-year period.
"If I'd just been stubborn and taken six months off," Foley says, "it'd be done."
True, but it's nice to know Sue Foley has chosen to remain part of this scene.