Sue Foley
Sue Foley is a virtual triple threat as a lead guitarist, singer and songwriter. Foley spent her early childhood in Canada, mesmerized by her father’s guitar and started her professional career at sixteen. By twenty-one, she was living in Austin, TX and recording for Antone’s—the esteemed blues label and historic nightclub that helped launch the career of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Foley is a four time consecutive winner of the Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Female Artist (Koko Taylor Award) in Memphis TN – 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2020. She was also recently honored with Guitarist of the Year and Blues Act of the Year at the at the 2023 Austin Music Awards, and the Lifetime Achievement/Blues with a Feeling Award at the 2024 Maple Blues Awards. Her album, Pinky’s Blues took home Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2022 Blues Music Awards. Sue Foley Live in Austin Vol. 1 (Oct. 2023) has continued to top the charts and Foley’s first solo acoustic album, One Guitar Woman – a tribute to the pioneering women of guitar, was released March 29, 2024 to much acclaim.
Foley has toured steadily with her band, working and sharing the stage with greats such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Billy F Gibbons. She’s is the only female member of the famed Jungle Show which features Gibbons, Vaughan, B3 virtuoso Mike Flanigin and Chris ‘Whipper’ Layton. Her live shows are high energy, guitar driven and steeped in the Texas blues sound she was schooled in.
“Foley has a killer voice, an impossibly alluring blend of sex and innocence to go with those blazing guitar chops.” (Philadelphia Inquirer)
“Hot licks and tasty riffs, all inspired by classic Texas blues.” (Vintage Guitar Magazine)
Danielle Nicole
Danielle Nicole is an Original American Blues and Roots Music Artist. Her most recent release “the Love You Bleed” on Forty Below has won people over, reaching #1 on Billboard Blues, iTunes, and Amazon Music and has already gained over 1.5 million streams worldwide. Nicole’s 2018 release “Cry No More” was nominated for a GRAMMY for Contemporary Blues Album and received (2) 2019 Blues Music Awards (Instrumentalist-Bass / Contemporary Female Artist) among several other accolades including (3) Independent Blues Awards and (2) Blues Blast Music Awards. She is no newbie to the scene, but the lineup and sound shine a light and give space to experience her in way you’ve never before seen. Since the success of “Cry No More”, Nicole has since received her 5th Blues Music Award for Bassist of the Year and her 2nd Nomination for Vocalist of the Year. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, Danielle Nicole has spent her life making music and pleasing fans, domestically and abroad. Her stunning new album, The Love You Bleed on Forty Below Records, comprises twelve hearfelt tracks exploring themes of love, loss and perseverance.
The new album was produced by Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Eric Burdon, Robert Cray) and co-produced by Nicole, with John Porter (B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bryan Ferry) mixing. The tight-knit quartet on the songs features Danielle on bass guitar and vocals; Brandon Miller (electric, acoustic, pedal steel, mandolin, and 12-string guitar), Damon Parker (keyboards); Go-Go Ray (drums), and Stevie Blacke (violin and cello).
Nicole was initially influenced by her parents and local Blues musicians in Kansas City such as Cotton Candy Washington, Myra Taylor, and Little Hatch Povine. She recalls seeing her father playing blues guitar and her mother singing with the group Little Eva & The Works from a very young age. With her two brothers, she became a member of Trampled Under Foot, which found initial popularity in the Midwest and then worldwide for almost a decade following taking First Place in the International Blues Challenge. Danielle embarked on her solo career with Wolf Den (2015), which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Blues charts and has amassed 12.5 million Spotify streams. Cry No More (2018) followed, the record was nominated for a Grammy in the contemporary blues category and debuted at number one in the Billboard Blues Charts – it also boasts over Spotify streams in excess of 12 million.
Nicole has been inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame and has been the recipient of seven Blues Music Awards. She recently did a duet with Albert Castiglia on the song “All Our Past Times”, also released a feature with Dion on the upcoming song “I Aim To Please,” and recorded the opening track in the forthcoming Peter Hutchings film “Which Brings Me To You.” There has been no shortage of praise; Guitar World stated, “Danielle Nicole has won respect and admiration throughout the American blues scene for her soulful, inventive playing and tireless work ethic.” Blues Music Magazine effused, “Nicole brings it, bakes it, and serves it up blazing on a silver soul- rocking player.” The Kansas City Star declared, “Blues and soul vocalists tend to improve as they age. Bettye LaVette is among the artists who became increasingly believable as she matured. Danielle Nicole appears to be following in her footsteps.” And the legendary Koko Taylor gets right to the point: “That girl gets down to the nitty gritty!” –
At the beginning of the The Love You Bleed recording sessions; Danielle Nicole knew this new album would be different from those in the past. “Maybe that’s because over half the songs are about falling in love and not falling through the destruction of it,” she says. The album is full of love, loss, will, determination, and all the other things that go together with love. “Make Love” is about consciously
pushing past the pain, choosing love, family, and community in life’s difficult moments. It uplinks the message of love and togetherness in the face of hardship.” “How Did We Get to Goodbye” with its raw and honest lyrics, document a soured love that bears no hero or villain, asking how you get to such a place of disrepair without even knowing it. And Love On My Brain, is a potent hybrid of vintage R&B
and driving blues, begins as a flirty feeling inside and turns to an overpowering need and deep desire. Right By Your Side is a vintage soul/R&B ballad about never making the mistake of watching “the one” walk away again.
The Love You Bleed gives Nicole a solid place that music has always provided in dealing with love and loss. “It’s been a difficult relationship listening to music outside of professional reasons since the passing of my brother Kris,” she says. “But just being honest in my writing and direction, I find when I’m the truest to myself, that’s when the magic happens. Not trying to find perfection in it so much, but engulfing myself in every moment and being there with the audience is when fun things can happen inside and out.” Many of those feelings are captured in all the songs on the album. There is a powerful sense of self in The Love You Bleed, taking the new songs to the place Nicole envisioned they could go. “I want to consciously move forward in the natural evolution of my songwritng and singing,” she says. And as I grow as a person, a woman, a mother.”