Sue Foley is renowned for her dynamic electric blues playing. Even so, the Texas blues woman took a stylistic detour on her latest album, One Guitar Woman, by covering a range of styles, including flamenco, classical and Tejano — all on a nylon-string acoustic guitar — while paying tribute to female guitarists like Memphis Minnie, Maybelle Carter and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

“That’s the great thing about guitar playing,” Foley says. “There’s always a new mountain to climb. I tend to be restless and adventurous in general, and that certainly extends to my guitar playing. I’ve spent a lot of my life playing the blues, and I’ll always return to it, but there’s other kinds of music I still want to learn.”

Such as? “Well, jazz, for sure,” she says. “I can’t play jazz — yet. Harmonically, I’m really challenged. I know if I were to really try to stretch myself, that’s where I would probably try to go.”

Foley recently heard she's received a Grammy nomination for “Best Traditional Blues Album” on behalf of One Guitar Woman. It's her first nomination, and one that is clearly well deserved. She was kind enough to take some time from her busy schedule to offer choice bits of advice for Guitar Player readers.

“There’s a lot of technical tips you can get out there, but to me a big part of guitar playing is mental,” she says. “It’s funny how a lot of players can talk themselves out of trying something new or breaking out of their boxes. Just remember: There’s no rights and no wrongs. Play fearlessly and it’ll all sort itself out.”

1. Ask Yourself Big Questions

“Learning the fundamentals of blues isn’t that difficult, really. Once you familiarize yourself with how the I, IV and V operate in the circle of fifths, you’re in a good place. To me, those are the primary colors you need in order to paint a picture. But what I find fascinating about the blues — and much of it is mysterious, in a way — is just how many ways there are to express yourself using only a few colors.

“Blues music asks you some big questions, like, Who am I? What do the blues mean to me? What do I really want to say? It almost dares you to expand your mind and express yourself through your playing. It wants you to go to a deeper place all the time. I find that fascinating. To me, it’s a challenge every time I play, like, How am I going to play this solo and these licks that have been regurgitated countless times for almost 100 years in a way that sounds fresh and alive? How am I going to make them sound like me?

“Asking yourself these types of questions is as important as any kind of technical practice you undertake. I guarantee you, whenever you listen to the greats, you
can bet they’ve asked themselves these questions. I know this sounds kind of spiritual, but when you get down to it, that’s really the essence of the blues. This is music born from a certain time and place, and whenever we play it, we’re paying homage to those spirits and keeping them alive.”

2. Tone Comes From Your Picking Hand

“Of course, you need decent equipment to get a good sound — a good-quality guitar and amp, decent strings that aren’t too old. But the real secret about tone is that it comes from your picking hand. Your fretting hand is doing one kind of work, but for the most part it’s flowing in the same kind of general moment. But your picking hand is where you control your tone. It’s surprising to me that so few people really talk about it.

“When I was coming up, I spent a lot of time watching people’s picking hands. I used to go see Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown a lot, and he had this amazing right-hand technique. He didn’t use a pick, and he did all these really interesting flourishes using all his fingers. It was like each finger was a paintbrush that he’d run across the strings. He could play fast and wild, but when I’d watch his right hand, it was like he put no effort into it. It was all graceful swing. That’s where his tone came from.

“In a different way, there was Albert Collins. He had another great right hand, and his tone could slice your head off. He used his fingers, too, and he played with very light strings. The way he dug his fingers into his strings and pulled the sound from them, it was like sparks flew.

“These kinds of players made an impression on me, and I decided to do away with a flatpick. I use a Golden Gate thumbpick, which I take on and off. Mostly I just play with my fingers so I can feel the flesh on the strings. What I like about that is how intimate it feels — there’s nothing that separates me from each string. I can pluck each string lightly, or I can dig in and get tough. I can run my fingers softly across the strings, or I can hit ’em hard. Playing this way, my tone comes straight from my picking hand, whether I’m going through an amp or not.”

3. If You Play Electric, Try an Acoustic

“It’s easy to let your pickups and amp do a lot of the work for you, but if you want to expand your playing — and if you want a dose of humility — pick up an acoustic from time to time. I started on an acoustic, so I’ve always felt comfortable playing one. The way I generate sound on it is vastly different than on an electric guitar. The sound basically comes from my stomach, which is pressed right against the instrument.

“It’s an unforgiving instrument, which freaks a lot of people out. This is especially true if you’re playing a nylon-string acoustic, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately. Don’t expect it to have the same behavior and response as your electric. It’s a whole different animal. So right away, adjust your expectations and approach. You’re going on a new adventure.

“I would also recommend people either use a thumbpick or an open hand when playing acoustic. There are so many things you can do using your whole hand, and you can experiment in so many ways. But be patient. You’re going to have to take baby steps. I remember my first flamenco guitar lesson: I had been playing for a couple of decades and I thought I was pretty good. I went for my first flamenco guitar lesson, which was open hand, no picks, on a nylon-string acoustic. Between the time signatures and the techniques, it was like I’d never played guitar before. Believe me, it was a good dose of humility.

“The more I played on a nylon-string acoustic, the more I fell in love with its sound and feel. I surrendered to the sound and didn’t fight it. And what was cool was when I found I could use a lot of the right-hand techniques I learned and apply them to my Telecaster playing. My fingers just flew across the strings.”

4. Embrace Your Suckiness

“We all hit a wall with our playing sometimes. I got in a rut myself with my blues playing. I’d been out on the road, and I could play different styles of electric blues, but then I started to think, What else is there? That’s when I started to get into learning flamenco and classical techniques. It was this mountain I wanted to climb, and the only way to do it was through baby steps.

“Whether you want to learn a different style of playing or not, the important thing is that you can’t give into your fear. If you’re trying something new or difficult, you can’t get freaked out if you suck at first. Keep going. In a way, you have to be honest and sort of embrace your suckiness. Say to yourself, Okay, I really suck at this, but I’m not going to stop. Each day you’ll be a little bit better, and one day you’ll be able to say, Hey, I don’t suck anymore.”

5. Speak Through Your Instrument

“Music is a conversation, and if you’re a guitar player, you’re speaking through your instrument. Think about it: If you’re having a conversation with somebody, are you just going to blather all over them and yell at them? That’s not a very effective way of communicating. Better to sit back and wait until it’s your turn to speak, and when you do, try to add something meaningful to the exchange.

“If you try to adopt this attitude, you’re going to find that you don’t have to say everything all at once to make a point. Jimmie Vaughan once told me, ‘Solos are
like little paragraphs in a story.’ That’s a lesson I took with me, and it’s guided me through the years. I don’t need to blather on in my solos. If I have something to say, I’ll say it. If I don’t, I won’t. If I perform a ballad that just requires me to play a melody, is that really so bad? I think not. That’s what I need to add to the conversation.”

Muriel Anderson is a musical adventurer. When it comes to genre, she’s almost impossible to pin down. Though she is known as both a fingerstyle and harp guitarist, those definitions don’t come close to encompassing all her interests and capabilities. 

A lifelong student of music and a lover of world cultures, Anderson is constantly seeking higher musical ground.

Her ambition has produced a long list of accolades that include winning the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship, playing with Chet Atkins (see above pic) and Les Paul, and developing Muriel Anderson’s All Star Guitar Night, an annual charitable performance featuring some of the finest pickers on the planet.

Her music was featured in Woody Allen’s 2008 film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. More recently, she toured a multimedia collaboration with photo-artist Bryan Allen that includes cultural exploration, visuals and food, and is titled, appropriately, Wonderlust.

When did your classical training begin?

In college. I started with folk guitar lessons when I was eight, joined a bluegrass band and then played in school jazz bands. I did a lot of improvising before that, and I’ve always been fascinated by international folk music. I came to classical reluctantly because it was the only way I could study guitar in college.

Can you improvise on classical pieces?

There are some Spanish pieces that I can improvise on, but other pieces are so perfect that improvising would not improve them. But I do improvise on phrasing. 

Each time I play a classical piece I discover a new way or a new tone to put on a particular note, or how to smooth it into the next note so it feels to me like an improvisation. The interpretations are different every time. That’s what keeps the music interesting.

I read that you were very much into Doc Watson as a child. Were there other styles of music that interested you?

I was mostly interested in folk music and some international music as well. I was fascinated by different kinds of sounds. I would try to get different sounds out of my guitar. I was interested in all these ways of thinking about music.

You use some flamenco techniques in your music. Did you study it?

No. I took two flamenco guitar lessons and the instructor just showed me some techniques. But it changed my perception of what could be done with the right hand and how to get fire out of the instrument.

What techniques in particular?

The rasgueado technique [a precise and rapidly performed strumming style in which the fingernails strike the strings] He showed me how to keep it going continuously. I’ve used aspects of that to come up with other types of strums, depending on whether I want to end with an up strum or a down. Learning that one technique gave me the tools to come up with a bunch of others.

Did you always know you would become a musician?

I knew I would do something in the arts. I wasn’t sure if it would be the visual arts, creative writing or music, until I was in grade school and had a dream that I was carrying my guitar to school. 

The guitar got heavier and heavier, until finally I set it down and rode it to school. It lifted off the ground and transported me. After that, I figured the guitar would be what carried me, and it was.

When I was a kid in the ’70s, you could name the serious women players on one hand.

I was introduced to Suzi Quatro from her appearances as Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days, but prior to that, she was a multi-million selling artist with a reputation as a badass rock chick.

Actually, she may have been the first “rock chick.”

She dressed in black leather, played the hell out of the bass, and held her own with a group of rough Detroit dudes.

When I interviewed Suzi several years ago, I was struck by her seriousness as a player, her humility, and her outspoken opinions on female musicians.

I love how she holds us all accountable to master our instruments.

Even though she’s a grandmother now, and has lived in Europe for decades, Suzi Quatro is real Detroit grit – a self-invented, unique, and courageous trailblazer.

You created the rock chick.

Well, yeah, because there wasn’t anybody for me to model myself after. I was aware I wasn’t succumbing to being like other girls, and I was nervous about that, but I had to stick to what I was.

I made up my mind after seeing Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show when I was eight years old that I was going to be like him.

After his comeback concert [in 1968], the whole leather thing made sense to me. I actually had a big argument with my first manager about it. He said it was old hat, but I said, “Well, it has never been done by a girl.” So he suggested the leather jumpsuit, and that was it.

Was it difficult being an originator when you were young?

It was hard all through my life. I never knew where I belonged until I got on stage. I shocked a lot of people. I was playing with a band of guys, and I was in charge.

Nobody had seen that before, and I like to think I gave women a voice in rock and roll, which we should have had, but we didn’t.

In fact, to this day, I have a real aversion to women who pick up instruments and don’t play them properly. That really pisses me off. I think, “What the hell did I bother for?” If you can’t play it, don’t fucking pick it up!

How come the bass?

When we started our first band after seeing the Beatles, my sister Patti told me, “You’ve got the bass.” So I asked my dad if I could borrow one. He gave me a ’57 Fender Precision, and all the other girls were playing cheap copies. Destiny rules, you know?

I think it was god’s plan from day one that I was going to be a bass player. But I still practiced until my fingers bled.

The Fender Precision has a wide neck, and I have small hands. Luckily, I knew piano, so my hands were used to stretching for notes, but until I got the feel of the Precision, it was really hard on my fingers.

What are the most important things you’ve learned during your career?

You must stay totally grounded. You have to leave your ego on the stage where it belongs. I have Suzi Quatro, and I have little Suzi from Detroit. They are both me, but they are two different people.

You should also stay hungry. I always want more, and that’s a good thing, because it keeps me creative.

Finally, you need to follow your heart. Your dream doesn’t have to be making you money – it just has to make you happy.

Order Suzi Quatro's latest studio album, The Devil in Me, here.

***The following appeared in the November 2019 issue of Guitar Player***

Years ago, I reached out to L.A.-based guitarist and guitar educator Nikki O’Neill for an interview.

I was pleasantly surprised and honored when she included me in her 2014 book, The Women’s Road to Rock Guitar (Alfred Music), a breakthrough publication aimed at inspiring more women to play with skill and confidence.

Nikki has a TrueFire lesson channel, Nikki O’Neill’s Twang, Soul & Rock ’n’ Roll, and she’s released music, available at nikkioneill. com.

Her latest album, 2020's World is Waiting (Blackbird Record Label) is available to order here.

How would you describe your music?

It’s soul-influenced Americana. There’s a lot of rhythm and blues in it, too.

Who are your main influences?

I always come back to Santana. He’s definitely the one that made me start playing and got me to practice.

Prince was also really influential, as was Teenie Hodges, who played on Al Green’s records. Pops Staples too. Later on, I got into more blues players, like B.B., Freddie and Albert King.

What about female influences?

Jennifer Batten and Nita Strauss inspire me with their accomplishments and stage charisma, even though their playing style is entirely different from mine. I don’t really see myself as a rock shredder. But I was just blown away when Jennifer was on the cover of Guitar Player [July 1989].

Wendy Melvoin, from Prince’s band, was a huge influence on me, and so was Emily Remler. I got her Hot Licks instructional video on Latin improvisation, where she teaches how to play a bossa nova rhythm, with the bass and the syncopated chords at the same time. I wore that thing out.

The women players who inspire me now are Laura Chavez and yourself. I also think Ana Popovic played really great on her album, Unconditional.

What made you decide to write The Women’s Road to Rock?

While teaching, I discovered that I’m good at breaking down information. I got good at reading people and finding what turns them on in terms of learning. So I felt that I could write a book on the subject and gather the information that was most useful to me, like getting into bands, being a rhythm and lead guitarist, writing songs, understanding song structures and gear.

It took two years to write it, and I’ve tested the content on my students. In addition to you, it features 10 guitarists: Jennifer Batten, Kat Dyson, Lita Ford, Kaki King, Ann Klein, Bibi McGill, Orianthi, Vicki Peterson, Ana Popovic and Nancy Wilson.

When I first wrote the book, I intended it to be for everybody, but Alfred Music wanted the angle to be toward female players, and they really urged that. I remember the attitudes people had toward me when I started out playing, so I wanted to be an encouraging voice and explain guitar terminology and gear, because a lot of women find those things intimidating.

I want to inspire women to play. I have girl students who are so dedicated. One who is 10 years old is obsessed with Led Zeppelin and practices like crazy. I love working with them and want to be a great influence on them.

For more information about Sue Foley, visit suefoley.com.

When I began interviewing women guitarists in 2001, Del Rey topped my list of players to speak with.

Born Della Rey, she grew up in San Diego and started playing guitar at age four. By the time she hit her teens, Del had already discovered pre-war blues and been mentored by Mississippi blues legend Sam Chatmon.

Over the decades she has become adept in many blues guitar styles and in advanced ukulele technique.

Del is also one of the foremost experts on the history of women and guitar. When not touring or teaching, she conducts lectures on Women in American Music and Women with Guitar.

You started playing guitar at the age of four. Do you have any recollection of it?

Yes, I have a pretty good memory from even before that, but I really started to play seriously when I was introduced to the music of Memphis Minnie and when I met Sam Chatmon at 13.

I had been introduced to these Memphis Minnie Blues Classics volumes 1 and 2 [released in 1964 and 1967, respectively, on the Blues Classics label]. I had been listening to those and learning songs by ear, so when I saw Sam, I noticed he played in a style that had a lot in common with Memphis Minnie’s. It was that down-home, song-oriented style, rather than the heavy Delta style.

Why do you think there haven’t been more women guitarists?

I think there’s a ton of them that people just ignore, like Mary Osborne [active in jazz from the mid 1930s until her death in 1992]. Who knows about her? And she’s a great guitar player. You go through the history of jazz and her name never comes up.

Women were either actively discouraged from performing or had to consciously overcome so many boundaries that made it harder for them. 

Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, the founder of the American Guitar Society, was also a very influential performer. She published, like, 140 reference books. There were two Martin guitars named after her. She was very well known, all through the 1920s and ’30’s.

The history of jazz guitar should include Mary Osborne. A history of guitar in general should include Vahdah Olcott-Bickford. She is about as statured in that music as Memphis Minnie is in blues.

I mean, how can you make a cult figure of Robert Johnson, who recorded 30 sides, and ignore Memphis Minnie, who recorded 200? Get over it already!

The more I know about the 1920s and ’30s, the more informed I am about what’s going on now. That’s what I like about it. When I was a little girl, I didn’t know there were any other women guitar players, but my students now know about them. Girls today are so much more informed than girls of our generation, or our mothers’.

Do you find that there are more female guitarists now?

I think there’s an onset of everything female. Girls are just empowered to do whatever they want to do now. If they want to go out and get a job, they do that. 

If they want to be an artist of whatever kind, they can find a place to be that. 

It’s a good thing.

Browse Del Rey’s extensive catalog at Hobemian Records here.

Visit Del Rey’s website here.

For more information about Sue Foley, visit suefoley.com.

Badi Assad is the younger sister of renowned Brazilian guitarists Sérgio and Odair Assad. She came out of the highly competitive world of classical guitar but soon went in her own musical direction, searching for something more.

When she was just 17 years old, Assad was named Best Brazilian Guitarist at the International Villa Lobos Festival. Soon after, she began to experiment by adding mouth percussion and rhythmic body percussion to her performances.

In 1995, her solo album Rhythms won Guitar Player’s readers’ poll for Best Classical Album of the Year, and she was voted Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist by the magazine’s editors.

Even though Assad has roots in the classical world, her music defies categorization. It’s purely Badi.

You’ve been playing guitar since the age of 14. Did you start because of your father and brothers?

It was a vehicle to be closer to my father, to feel more a part of the family. It was also a sentimental issue why I started playing the guitar, and luckily, I also had the ability for it, like my brothers.

Do your brothers compose?

My brother Sérgio is the one who composes, and Odair is the one who plays all those notes that Sérgio writes. They make a very good balance. I’m not an improviser on the guitar. It’s not my school. I came from a classical background, where practicing is mostly done alone.

I never had a lot of interaction on the guitar or playing with friends. I would practice for hours and hours a day, studying and going for competitions and all that, until one day I realized this wasn’t for me.

When I started singing and doing the mouth percussion, my idea was always to do as much as I could alone. So on my first album, which is solo, they started calling me a “one-woman band,” because when you hear it you have the impression that more than one person is performing.

You wrote in your bio that guitar wasn’t just an instrument to you. You said, “It represented my ties to Brazil, my ties to my father, my ties to non-independence, and my ties to the past.” How did you reconcile that with your self-identity?

My way of dealing with it was totally spiritual. Badi is not just a guitar player; Badi is everything. Guitar is just a part of who I am.

Nowadays, my approach to it is completely different. I don’t have to prove anymore to myself that I am a good player. And it’s not like my parents were going to love me less if I didn’t play. When I do music now, guitar is just a part of it.

I don’t feel the need to do all this complicated stuff. I just play. If it’s complicated, it’s okay. If it’s not, it’s okay. Before, everything had to be complicated. So I freed myself to play simple stuff and find the beauty in that.

Were you trying to transcend what your brothers were doing?

When I started playing the guitar, I totally wanted to be like them. They were my mirror. I was more like a little boy than a little girl. I liked to climb trees, and my father would relate to me like a boy, because he didn’t know how to have a girl.

My father’s just really macho. But when I started singing, my feminine side came out. Even my posture with the guitar became more feminine. I never played on my left leg like most classical guitarists; I always played on the right leg.

It’s not like you go and search and you copy somebody. It’s just waking up that makes you alive in other areas. I am always awake for the little things that can happen or appear. You never know where.

French classical guitarist Ida Presti was a phenomenal player, and she has a fascinating story.

Born in 1924, she began as a child prodigy and quickly rose to fame in the classical world in France.

In 1952, she joined forces with her husband, Alexandre Legoya, and the two worked together until her untimely death in 1967, when she was just 43.

Classical guitarist Alice Artzt was one of Presti’s best-known students and spoke with me at length about Presti’s transforming influence on her life and music.

Here is a small excerpt from our interview…

Ida Presti was such a remarkable player that it’s unbelievable she’s not a household name.

Absolutely. She was astounding as a musician and performer. She could do anything at any speed, with a sound that was instantly beautiful.

Once, I had just received a copy of a new classical piece. She saw it and said, “Oh, wow, a new piece! That looks nice.” And she sat down and played through the whole solo part, at high speed. I mean, it would have done for an LP recording.

Her phrasing was gorgeous, beautiful. Everything there. And the funny thing is, she was so modest. I still remember her whipping through the pages. She stopped after about five or six pages and looked up like she was a kid doing something that was a little bit naughty. She said, “I’m sight reading you know,” and then on she went, right though to the end of the thing.

I mean, nobody can do stuff like that. And yet she was such an innocent. She is the closest thing that I ever will know to a saint.

How did you meet Presti?

We heard this wonderful French duo was coming to New York. I went to the concert, and I had a whole pile of questions for them afterward, including, “Where can I study with you?” So I studied with Presti and Lagoya that summer.

It changed my whole right-hand technique, and I’m quite sure I would not have had the career I had, had I not done so.

The technique you refer to is picking with the right side of the nail?

Yes. It means you can get away with less strength. It’s more stable, solid, and it just made a tremendous difference.

What’s the best thing Ida Presti taught you?

That every note is important. Even the little notes, the fast notes and the non-important notes. And they should all sound gorgeous.

If you’re playing with that point of view – that every note is important, every note should be gorgeous, and it should sound exactly the way you want – then you get some control. Then, even if people don’t like what you’re playing, it will still sound good to them.

When I interviewed Sharon Isbin, she implied that Presti was the stronger guitar player in the duo?

It’s not a rumor. Lagoya was maybe in some ways stronger physically, but the guitar was a piece of her! She could do anything, and she nearly never practiced.

The wonderful thing about Lagoya was that he managed to sit up there onstage with this absolutely incomparably amazing guitarist and not look like an idiot. That is already more than most people could do.

He did it and he pulled it off, and so if you just listen to records, you can pretty much tell who’s who. But seeing them onstage, it was not immediately evident that she was just so astronomically better than he because she deferred to him a lot.

And that is to his amazing credit. When you’d see them practicing, she would make a suggestion, and he would snap to it and do it. He was the student for sure.

What recordings do you recommend?

Anything of Presti’s. Get the solo ones too. You may not have an easy time finding them. It’s all interspersed with Lagoya records.

Although Sue Foley is originally from Canada, on two major occasions her life has directed her to Texas. At the end of the ’80s, the guitarist and singer-songwriter moved to Austin when the city’s late blues impresario Clifford Antone signed her to his record label and became her mentor. The timing and location couldn’t have been more perfect for a 21-year-old blues guitarist building a career.

Right when Stevie Ray Vaughan was blowing the music world away and putting Austin on the map, Antone made sure Foley shared the stage with every national and local blues master who came through his eponymous club.

Playing three sets per night, six nights a week, Foley honed her chops and found her musical home and kindred spirits within the Texas blues community (one memorable off-stage moment involved shooting dice with Albert Collins). 

Seeing her potential and dedication, Antone also ensured Foley went on the road to open for Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor and Johnny Winter.

Following her pregnancy and marriage, Foley returned to Canada to raise her son but continued touring and releasing a number of albums, always staying faithful to her love for traditional blues, even as she began studying flamenco guitar and incorporating some of those influences into her blues.

Then she was suddenly contacted by Mike Flanigin, a Hammond B3 player with Jimmie Vaughan and Billy Gibbons, and an old friend from her Austin days. The Antone’s club had re-opened, and Flanigin wanted her to come down and play. This led to them working together on Foley’s critically acclaimed 2018 album, The Ice Queen.

Anchored in Texas electric blues, yet musically varied with horns and acoustic solo numbers, the album featured duets with Gibbons, Vaughan and Charlie Sexton, and showcased Foley’s talent for writing blues songs and lyrics that avoid genre clichés. 

It also showed that it’s fully possible to make a blues album with a modern approach and still win the Blues Foundation’s Koko Taylor Award for Best Female Traditional Blues Artist, which Foley did in 2020.

Riding a wave of success – including appearances with Vaughan at the Beacon Theater and Royal Albert Hall, and a packed calendar of festivals and international tours – Foley saw her performance schedule grind to a grim halt with the pandemic.

As a response to current circumstances and restrictions, she presents Pinky’s Blues with no overdubs and few guest musicians, capturing a heavyweight blues power trio with bassist John Penner, and drummer Chris Layton in electrifying interactions.

The result is a raw and unfiltered tribute to Texas blues and R&B. We spoke with Foley about the album after seeing her perform in Chicago with her trio, featuring Penner on bass and Corey Keller on drums.

You’ve followed up The Ice Queen with a straight-ahead Texas blues album. What made you go in this direction?

It was actually our producer, Mike Flanigin, who came up with the idea to make a blues guitar album. He produced The Ice Queen as well, and that was an artistic project that was really varied, where we were looking at each song individually and having different lineups of musicians. Then we did Mike’s album, West Texas Blues, which used the same group of players in the studio. So we decided to take the more stripped-down approach.

Since we were in the framework of not gathering in big groups, we knew it was going to be a small, close session, with just a few people spaced out in a big room, and that we had to do everything live with all of us playing together and in the moment.

The album sounds bold and ballsy, and your playing has the swagger to match.

Thank you. I listened to it recently to refresh my memory before touring, and I thought, Yeah, this sounds pretty greasy!

But we were also just having fun. Whatever vibe you’re picking up from the studio, we were letting out a lot of energy, since we hadn’t been able to play live for a while. So there’s some lighthearted fun there too. We were just happy to hang out together.

There is some tender and lyrical R&B playing on it too, but the overall vibe is intense.

Well, we took a deep-dive into some really great songs, mostly the Texas blues catalog, with Clarence Gatemouth Brown [“Okie Dokie Stomp”], Frankie Lee Sims [“Boogie Real Low”] and Lavelle White [“Stop These Teardrops”], but also Chicago stuff like Robert Nighthawk [“Someday”] and Junior Wells [“When the Cat’s Gone the Mice Play”], and then my own songs [“Hurricane Girl,” “Dallas Man,” “Pinky’s Blues”]. When you play that kind of stuff, you’ve got to be really committed to it.

The title track is a slow instrumental blues. Two minutes into it, you do a very cool thing that almost sounds like sparks are coming out of your Tele. Is that just a backward rake?

It is, and it’s something Freddie King did a lot on songs like “San Ho Zay,” but he was using metal fingerpicks. I use a thumbpick and my fingers, but I have acrylic nails on my right-hand fingers, and those kind of act as fingerpicks.

Those have got to be hard to maintain?

They are. I try to keep them up, because I do a lot of Spanish nylon-string guitar playing at home, and sometimes on the road, too. I find that you can apply some of the Spanish fingerstyle techniques to a Fender Telecaster, they’re very compatible.

Why the Telecaster in particular? Is it because of its tonal clarity?

Yeah. Teles are very simple and pure. There’s just a tone and a volume knob, and all the nuances that you do in that framework are yours.

Teles can be tough taskmasters, too, since they don’t sustain as easily as a guitar with humbuckers.

Exactly. You’ve got to get used to playing pretty clean. I think if you can play a Tele well, it shows that you have good technique, because you have to play kind of precise and clean. There’s nowhere to hide.

How did Chris Layton’s presence behind the drum kit influence your playing?

A lot. When I talked about the album sounding greasy, that’s Chris. He’s just got that really deep pocket. When you’re playing with somebody that strong, you feel really supported, and they also help direct where a song’s gonna go. And you trust them, because you know that they know where it should go.

It’s not that Chris is telling me how to play; he’s directing things to where the groove is so deep that you’re comfortable, and it’s just going where it needs to go. He knows what’s happening, and he’s in the driver’s seat in a lot of ways.

But you like where he’s driving, so you don’t mind.

I love where he’s driving, and I think the drums on this album sound amazing, partially because of that big open room we were in.

How did you record the album?

We were set up just like we’d be onstage at a live gig, but with a few baffles between us, and a lot of room mics. The drums were in the middle, with the guitars and bass on each side, and the vocals were up in the middle.

[Engineer] Chris Bell was capturing all of it, so you’ll hear mic bleed, like guitar in the drum mics. And the bass was going through a mic’d amp, as opposed to going direct.

Where did you record?

Fire Station Studios in San Marcos, Texas. It’s the same place where I recorded The Ice Queen. It was all done in about two and a half to three days. What you’re hearing is all live, and mostly first or second takes. Vocals and guitars recorded at the same time. We couldn’t even overdub if we wanted to.

On the slow blues, “Say It’s Not So,” your vocals are very emotive. You’re completely connected to the lyrics, and you go into a wailing solo on the next beat. It takes a lot of live performing to reach that comfort level with music and lyrics, and on both instruments.

Singing was never what drove me. I wanted to play guitar, but I had to sing, and over time I learned to enjoy it. It is about doing a lot of gigs and pushing yourself, but I always stress that it’s also important who you listen to. It used to be pretty common for a guitar player to also be a great singer. Think of T-Bone Walker, or Freddie, B.B. and Albert King.

You also do a blazing version of Gatemouth’s “Okie Dokie Stomp.”

I’ve been playing it since I was in my early 20s. That song is a rite of passage in the blues guitar playing world, especially in Texas blues, but Hollywood Fats in California also did a famous version of it in Eb, where he adapted those horn lines to guitar.

Ronnie Earl’s version is insanely great too, and it’s in C, which is the same key I do it in, so I kind of reference Ronnie’s version, to be fair. It’s a fun song to get under your belt, like the Freddie King instrumentals. Back in the day, we had to know these songs.

Your rig is minimal, but the tone you get onstage and in the studio is full and rich. Let’s talk about that, starting with your signature guitar of many years.

Well, Pinky is a stock Fender Telecaster with the pink paisley design that was reissued in the mid-to-late ’80s, and I got it in 1987. They’re made in Japan, and for whatever reason, the Teles from that era are really good. I haven’t changed anything on it. I use the stock pickups. I’m afraid to change them, since I like the sound so much and I might not get it back.

I’ve had it refretted a few times. [Foley has three “Pinky” Telecasters, and her first is now off the road.] As for strings, I’ve used D’Addario [EXL 110] .010–.046 strings for probably 30 years. I change them every few gigs if we’re playing steady, since I like them kinda fresh.

On Pinky’s Blues, you use your original Fender Bassman that you’ve had for the past 30 years. Have you modded it in any way?

I don’t really mess with the speakers. It’s very rare that I change them. The only thing I change a lot is the [6L6] tubes. But, man, you can’t kill those Bassmans! They stand up on the road, night after night. It’s a simple workhorse of an amp, but if you get one in good shape, you can get a killer sound.

If the amp sound has a lot of body, like the Bassman, which has 40 loud watts, the 4x10s get the sound across with the right amount of power. You can drive the amp and speakers without getting as loud as the 2x12s on a Twin. It’s really versatile and will handle a small, medium or big stage. I find that you can get a full sound and get it to move around.

How do you position the amp live?

It depends on the stage and the room. Sometimes when I play a smaller room, I’ll put the amp on its back, aiming it straight up. I learned that from Jimmie Vaughan. If you’re in a theater and you need the sound to be in the system too, you can baffle the amp to deflect the sound a bit, and if you’re on a big stage, like at a festival, you can have the two of them together and wide open.

You also don’t use pedals very much.

I do love reverb, so I use the Boss RV-5, and I also use some tremolo, like a Boss TR-2 or Strymon Flint, on a couple of tunes. Since the sound of a Telecaster is very clean and straight ahead, I sometimes use an Xotic RC clean boost, just to get sustain and widen the tone ever so much if I’m playing at a lower volume but still want to hear the pure tone. Cindy Cashdollar taught me that. But I literally keep the boost at the lowest possible setting. If I can drive the amp hard enough, I won’t use it. I like the sound out of the amp mostly.

Anybody can hide behind pedals. I don’t. You don’t want to lean on them too much or they’ll start to shape your tone when it really should come from the guitar, amp and your hands. You’ve got to create yourself and your tone, and then use the pedal, but a lot of times people go the opposite way. They use the pedal to create themselves. It’s backwards, and it’s so pedal-heavy that you can’t tell who that player is. So many players all sound the same – like the pedal.

Do you have any tips for improving tone?

I stress being picky about who you listen to, or at least spending a lot of time listening to the tone masters and soaking it in. Your creativity, phrasing, technique and inventiveness are so important, but your tone is your DNA and your musical stamp. You can have all the flash in the world, but if your tone sucks, you’re nowhere. I’d rather have a great tone and less chops than all chops and no tone.

It means so much that people have been saying that they like the tone on this album. But it isn’t just about me. There’s Chris with his mic placements, and Mike who was stubborn about all of us being in one room. So you’re hearing the guitar through all of these other instruments, too.

When we enjoy hearing master singers like Aretha Franklin or Ray Charles, the reason their voices sound so compelling isn’t just because of their phrasing or vocal technique. It’s also their timbre and sound that we love.

Yeah. It’s the same thing with guitar. Your tone is your voice.

Buy a copy of Pinky’s Blues by Sue Foley here.

Deborah Coleman was a great blues guitar player. She was well known in the blues world but had a rock background, which gave her playing a distinct edge. Coleman was as at home playing Billie Holiday as she was Jimi Hendrix, and she was known to stretch out her live show into extensive and expressive jams, where one song might last 40 minutes.

The blues world felt a great loss when she passed away suddenly in 2018 from complications due to pneumonia. GP spoke to the award-winning guitarist back in 2008 following a tour in support of the collaborative Sue Foley, Deborah Coleman, and Roxanne Potvin album Time Bomb.

How did you start playing professionally?

On weekends I would go to blues jam sessions, and that’s when I started meeting a lot of traveling musicians coming through town. Kenny Neal was one of the first I met. I remember the first question I asked him. I said, “How much money do you make in blues?” And he gave me this unbelievable figure. He told me, “I make, like, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year.” I said, “Oh really?” I thought that sounded pretty good!

When you started out, was anyone surprised to see you playing leads?

Dickey Betts for one. Dickey was like, “Finally, a girl that plays!” I met him in Sarasota, Florida, one year doing a festival with Steven Segal. I’ve worked with some really great people in my band, too, and everybody was great in their own right. To make it out on the road with a group of guys, you almost have to be one of them. You gotta act cool and learn how to talk football and baseball.

Do you still listen to rock and roll?

If I do, it’s the old stuff. I’ll still go listen to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles or Joe Satriani. My favorite rock and roll guitar player is Eddie Van Halen. That guy had feeling! He just had so many unique ideas, and he took things in a different direction.

Tell me some of your career highlights.

I’ve been blessed with a lot of great opportunities. I won the Orville Gibson Award [for Best Blues Guitarist, Female] in 2001, and I’ve had about eight or nine W. C. Handy Blues Music Award nominations.

But really, the best thing has been getting to perform with some of the musicians that I never thought I’d have a chance to play with, like Bonnie Raitt. I also got to play with Paul Rodgers. We were at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gig and he needed a guitar player that could play the song “All Right Now.” Somebody told him, “Deborah plays rock and roll,” so he called me. I went over to his hotel room and learned the song, and I got to play it onstage with him.

One of the best highlights of my career was playing B.B. King’s 80th birthday [in 2005]. I was surprised to even be on the stage, and I was the only girl up there. I’m up there with B.B. and Bobby Bland, Bruce Willis, Montel Williams – some of the most famous people and notable musicians in the world. I remember, Montel looked at B.B. while we were playing. He pointed at me and said, “Give the girl a round!” So B.B. let me play a solo, and then he actually said my name after. I was the only performer whose name he announced.

Rosie Flores exudes mastery, passion, and fun when she plays electric guitar. During her decades-long career as a rockabilly artist she has achieved every kind of success, including major-label deals, awards, late-night-show appearances and movie cameos (her credits include a role in director Peter Bogdanovich’s 1993 film, The Thing Called Love).

The San Antonio native, who makes her home in Austin, is recognized worldwide as a rockabilly legend.

You’ve consistently played with lots of different women.

Oh, yeah. At 16, I started an all-girl group, Penelope’s Children. I thought, How cool would it be if we could play really well! Wouldn’t the guys like it? We had a van with our name painted on the side, and we toured Texas. There were no other guitar players in the band, and I’ve heard other women say that they were intimidated to play in front of men who were really good. I didn’t have that. I just had that free abandon. I could do what I wanted to, without thinking somebody was looking over my shoulder or judging me.

How old were you when you first picked up a guitar?

I was 15. I wanted to be a singer when I was 14, and by the time I was 15, I thought, Gee if I played the guitar, I could accompany myself. At first it was like, “I’m gonna learn this guitar so I can strum these changes.” And when I got into the electric it was like, “Okay, now I’m gonna play some leads and rock out and get some tone here.” That’s when the fun started.

I really owe a lot to my brother for showing me how to do all that. He was so generous with his time, and very encouraging. One of my very favorite players was bluegrass guitarist Clarence White. Then I jumped into Jeff Beck. He’s so fluid and melodic, and his phrasing is like he’s talking. I also loved his tone and sustain. I started out playing leads by trying to write my own solos, because I needed hooks when I was writing songs.

What’s your touring rig?

I play a James Trussart Custom Steelcaster though a Quilter MicroPro Mach 2 amp.

Do you use picks?

I use a medium pick, and also my index finger, my ring finger and my middle finger. I have acrylic nails. I get them done professionally. That is such a part of my style. I just have to have the nails on.

You seem to have such an upbeat attitude. How do you sustain that after so long in the business?

 You just gotta be true to who you are. I always find it funny when people come up to me and say, “Rosie, you’re my idol, ’cause you never give up.” Give up! How could I stop doing this? You don’t just go, Okay, if I haven’t sold a minimum of 200,000 records by this time, then I guess I didn’t make it, so I’ll have to go find something else to do.

We gotta just hang in there and try to keep being a good influence for the other women and men out there who might pick up a guitar because they saw us play.

In November 2008, I was on the road in Europe with a 22-year-old guitarist named Joanne Shaw Taylor. By that time, she had been a touring pro for more than six years after being discovered at 16 by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.

What immediately struck me about Jo was the earthiness of her sound and her persona. Her Strat tone is huge and meaty, and her playing style borders somewhere between her British blues-rock roots and the deep American South.

As a chick, she’s about as real as it gets – a true-blue player. Jo released her sixth album, Reckless Heart, in 2019 and her seventh – the Joe Bonamassa/Josh Smith-produced The Blues Album – is set for release next month. In our interview, she spoke about her early years and the various challenges she faced as a young female guitarist.

How did you get started playing guitar?

My father was a guitarist and a harmonica player, so there were always guitars around the house. My brother played as well. Being from Birmingham, England, my dad loved Led Zeppelin, Slade and all those heavy-metal bands, so I knew about electric guitar music from a very early age. I got my first Fender for my 13th birthday.

Did you always know what you were going to do?

I knew as soon as I saw a Stevie Ray Vaughan video. My studies went out the window. I tried my best to keep up, but I was practicing until I fell asleep at 4 a.m. and then trying to get up for school.

When did you actually start playing guitar professionally?

I started gigging when I was 15. What made a big difference was I learned about Jonny Lang. That was the first time I realized that you didn’t have to be a certain age to play the blues, and that I could try and make a living from it. There was a review in The Times that said he had gotten his first band and recorded his first album after playing for only three months and then left school, so I thought that was the benchmark. I think there was no one else like that – a professional musician in the blues at 15 and playing clubs. I started having a mild midlife crisis at 15 because I hadn’t left school yet.

Were you more concerned you’d be discriminated against for being young than for being female?

Absolutely. I didn’t even really consider the female factor until I got out of my teens and thought, ‘Yay, I’m not a teenager anymore, but I’m still a girl!’ That was like another layer that I would have to get through. But in a lot of ways, it’s been a bonus. I’ve always said, if you hear a guitar and shut your eyes, what does it matter if it’s a 60-year-old man or a 16-year-old girl?

I think you still don’t see enough women doing it, though. I used to show Stevie Ray videos to girls my own age, and I was like, “Jesus, look what I’ve discovered! This is going to change our lives.” But they would look at it and say, “But it’s just a bloke playing guitar.”

I’ve always been a tomboy anyway. That’s probably why it never occurred to me that I’d face discrimination for my sex, because I always felt like one of the boys. I think I play more like a man, and maybe that’s because that Texas style influenced me. One of my favorite things is football, and I play it pretty much the same I do guitar.

You’ve got to play hard and give it your best, and if you break some shins along the way, bonus.

You can pre-order Joanne Shaw Taylor's new LP The Blues Album directly from Joe Bonamassa's label KTBA Records here.

Joanne Shaw Taylor will be touring the U.S.A. later this year. Visit her website here for more information.

Debbie Davies' 1993 solo debut, Picture This (Blind Pig) came out on the heels of her time as second guitarist to the Master of the Telecaster himself, Albert Collins. From 1988 to 1991, she was a member of Collins’ band, the Icebreakers, and it doesn’t get much cooler than that. Debbie is still one of the most loved and respected members of the blues guitar community. She plays electric guitar right – the way she learned from Albert and from so many other greats that she’s shared stages with.

Looking at your history, it seems that camaraderie and jamming is a big part of your musical journey.

The blues thing has always had a lot of camaraderie, and I saw that when I was out with Albert Collins and his friends. If you’re on the road, there is this sense of isolation, and jamming is when that isolation completely falls away.

Who are some of your favorites to play with?

Coco Montoya, because he and I have such a history, and there are actual tunes we have worked out together. I also love sitting in with [Delta blues guitarists] Kenny Neal and Tab Benoit because they’re so deep into the blues. They are both very improvisational players. Albert Collins is my main man, though. Playing with him was an amazing time for me.

How did you land that gig?

Coco introduced me to Albert – he had been Albert’s drummer in the ’70s. We would go to barbecues and to Albert’s apartment, and then Albert asked me to sit in with him at the San Francisco Blues Fest. At the time, he was going through some changes in his band. He was going to need someone to pay a chordal instrument, and my name came up.

The night before they were leaving on tour, I got a call from his manager, and they offered me the gig. That was a dream come true. I didn’t really know what exactly to do to get my own thing going, and I thought, “Wow, what if I could back one of my heroes for a while?” So it was something I thought of, and it actually happened. Pretty amazing.

Were you intimidated to jump in with Albert’s band?

What really helped was that half the band had been on the road with Ike and Tina Turner, so they were used to traveling with a mixed-gender band. That wasn’t an issue for them, and they weren’t trippin’ on it. It was not an easy thing to do, but I was so driven and ballsy that I just did it.

Had you been a fan of Albert’s music before?

Yeah, definitely. He was just so strong and so special as a player. When he played a flurry of notes, it was pretty intense. It wasn’t easy at all. Everyone would sit around and try and get it. I got to hold his guitar, and I’ll tell you, the action was so low.

What tuning did Albert use?

The open tuning was an E flat minor. The A and the D strings were changed to make it a whole open chord. He’d play in D, so he’d have to capo way up the neck. I don’t know how he bent those strings, but he sure did.

How did you feel when you first started going out on your own?

After I left Albert, I bought myself my first van and was booking myself between tours with Albert. It was a lot of work, but I was digging it. It was still a party.

How do you feel about the scene right now?

It seems to be getting better. Blues does go in cycles. I didn’t know how lucky I was to have been out with Albert. It was such a ripe time for the blues

Browse Debbie Davies' extensive back catalog here.

Tere Estrada is a guitarist, singer/songwriter, author and sociologist from Mexico City who plays a mixture of blues, rock, jazz and Latin music. 

I reached out to her because of her book Sirens on the Attack: A History of Mexican Rock Women (1956–2000), and I was struck by her dedication to uncovering the stories of female musicians in Mexico. 

In 2018, Tere released her eighth album, Un Blues en la Penumbra (A Blues in the Gloom), which is inspired by her novel of the same name, about a Mexican woman who performs in the male world of rock and roll in the 1960s and ’70s. 

Why did you call your book Sirens on the Attack? 

I was making an analogy between the rock women and the sirens. You can find part of it in the United States in a book called Rock in Latin America. My book has 400 pages and the short version has around 40 pages. This short version is called A History of Women Rockers in Mexico.  

What inspired you to write it? 

I discovered there were very few women playing the guitar and few women in the audience at rock shows. I was busy trying to write music and play, and I wondered, Where are the other women? So I became like a detective looking for the other women, who were like the wind, because you only know them by name but you do not have any CD, LP or whatever with their music.  

Is it acceptable for a woman to be a guitar player in Latin American culture?

In general, it’s not considered professional to be a musician. And, of course, women who play with electric instruments are considered to be “breaking the rules.” It doesn’t matter if you played in the 1960s, ’80s or ’90s. The audience doesn’t believe that you belong in the band. 

When did you start to play guitar? 

When I was 13, I took up the guitar and joined the Union of Musicians and our Society of Composers. I went to the Society and I took some lessons there. I studied for two years. I also took guitar classes and singing classes for five years. 

Did you study to be a sociologist? 

Yes, I did my thesis about rock music, because music was the most important thing in my life. I am a member of the Latin branch of the IASPM [International Organization for the Study of Popular Music]. There are some historians and very few sociologists, but being a sociologist really helped me with the research.

Are you a full-time musician now? 

Yes. When my book appeared in 2002, I asked myself, What are you going to do? You spent 10 years of your life doing research. I have interviewed close to 100 women. Since then, I have been dedicated to promoting and doing lectures about the role of women in rock in Mexico, and I also played concerts.

In 2002, I toured Norway, Germany, Italy and Spain doing lectures about my book and playing concerts. I’m touring every time I talk about these women so that they are known. It’s a compromise, because I’m not promoting what I’m doing as much, but I’m promoting these other women. We are the sisterhood of the sirens.

Tell me about your rig.

I play a Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster through a Fender Model 85 amp. I’ve had the amp since 1991. I love that sound: Fender amp plus Fender Stratocaster. My pedals are a Dunlop Cry Baby Classic Wah, a Behringer Vintage Tube Overdrive and an Ibanez Digital Delay.

I have an Applause AE-38 electro-acoustic guitar that I bought in 1990. It has a crackled black-and-bone finish. Her name is Negra, and she’s a traveler. We’ve been touring for 30 years together. My guitar philosophy is, Have fun, jam with yourself and feel free. Breathe and play. Let your fingers connect with your heart.

• See tereestrada.com for more information.
• Sue Foley's latest album, The Ice Queen, is out now via Stony Plain Music.

I met and interviewed German jazz guitarist Susan Weinert while I was on tour in Europe in 2005. She showed up for the interview with her husband and musical partner, Martin Weinert. 

Susan’s laid-back, friendly attitude immediately put me at ease. It was one of my favorite and most memorable experiences talking to another guitar player. I always wanted to catch up again and was considering reaching out as I was putting this column together. 

To my shock, I learned Susan passed away from cancer on March 2 of this year. Susan was a beautiful jazz guitarist, composer and human being. To read more about her and purchase her music, visit susanweinert.com. 

• Our pick of the best jazz guitars

When did you start playing guitar?  

At the age of seven. I went to a classical player. He was a nice old man, but not a good teacher, so after three years I stopped. The problem was I couldn’t read music. Later, when I was 14 or 15, I was influenced by a jazz-rock guitar player from our town. I learned theory, and he told me to go to a jazz workshop. That’s where I fell in love with jazz.

What did your parents think of this? 

My dad was a dentist, and he thought I should learn a profession and then study music. I was in school to become a dental assistant when he died. Just before he died, he said, “Do what your heart is telling you, and do nothing else.” That was when I said I would be a musician. 

I’m really trying to do what I want to do, not what other people expect me to do. If someone says they won’t buy this kind of music, I don’t worry about it. I want to do what I want to do in my heart. 

Who are a few of your influences?  

I’m a big fan of Miles Davis, John Coltrane - all the giants of jazz. On the guitar side, I was influenced by Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson and Pat Metheny. 

I saw Pat in 1983. It was my first concert. I sat there for three hours, and it was like two minutes had passed. I went right home and tried to transcribe [his music]. It took me hours to transcribe four bars. From that evening on, I was totally into it.

Are you influenced by the guitar players of jazz or the horn players?  

Both. We had a Charlie Parker tape in the car. After a year, I could sing everything on it, and I practiced all of it. I transcribe horns and piano as well as guitar, because I want to be open. That’s helped me create my own style. 

How did you find it?  

For the first five years, we played just straight-ahead jazz with upright bass. When our drummer joined, he asked me to transcribe some John Scofield music. I learned to play all the chords, the solos and melody, and it was a great study for me. I thought, Maybe I should try to find the personality in the chords. So I started to write my own music in that style, and that helped me eventually develop my own style.

When you began to play guitar, did you know of any other women who played?  

Yes, Sheryl Bailey, and Leni Stern - she’s from Germany too. And Emily Remler. I loved her playing a lot. I always sensed sadness in her music. It felt warm, but sad.

How long have you and Martin been married?  

Twenty years. There was a point that we knew it was important to stay together as a couple, because if one person goes this way and another goes that way, it’s not good for a marriage. People ask us, “How can you stay together, play together, eat together, work together, for 24 hours?” But it’s wonderful. 

• Sue Foley's latest album, The Ice Queen, is out now via Stony Plain Music. 

When I first met Finnish guitarist and vocalist Erja Lyytinen in 2005 while on tour in Europe, she struck me as a force to be reckoned with. She had worked tirelessly to become one of the most renowned blues-rock guitarists on the continent. 

In 2002, she’d opened for Robert Plant and the following year was the only Finnish guitarist to perform at Puistoblues, the country’s biggest blues festival, where she met Bonnie Raitt and Koko Taylor.

Since then, Erja has starred on MTV Finland’s Tähdet, Tähdet music competition program, picked up the much-coveted European Guitarist of the Year award in 2017, performed in front of 80,000 people in her hometown of Helsinki on New Year’s Eve 2017 and shared the stage with Carlos Santana in 2018, all in addition to headlining more than 100 shows across Europe per year. 

Erja’s latest album, Another World (Tuohi Records), includes collaborations with Sonny Landreth and Jennifer Batten. 

When did you start playing guitar?

I started playing seriously around the age of 14. Both of my parents play: My mother is a bass player, and my father is a guitarist. We always had drums and a P.A. in the house, and we jammed. It was really good just to be in that environment.

Did you study guitar at school?

For two years at the conservatory, and at that time I started to have my own bands. You can take two instruments at school, and guitar has always been my first instrument. I’ve been singing all my life, but I always thought that I would have to focus on guitar playing.

Do you think that was because of your father’s influence?

Yes, I think so, but I’ve always thought that I had to work really hard to become a good guitar player. I’ve always sung, but all day at school I would mostly practice guitar.

How does what you studied relate to what you play professionally?

I studied jazz, fusion, pop… Lots of different music styles. But the blues is my heart. I use all these sounds in my music. I’m a songwriter, and I sing, so I mix them all together.

Who are your musical influences?

When I started to practice guitar seriously, I was into Mike Stern and Scott Henderson. I also liked Robben Ford, because he was very bluesy. When I was studying at the conservatory, I heard Ray Charles sing “Georgia on my Mind,” and I thought, "Wow that’s what I want to do! It has feeling." Everyone else in school was really into jazz and scales and theory. 

Then I put together a blues band and I was copying Koko Taylor’s songs. She’s a big influence too. I’ve also listened to rockabilly and recently started to listen to classic blues guitarists like Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson.

You play Dobro too. Do you play traditional blues?

I’m digging into music from the early ’20s and ’30s and listening to what those guitarists did. I saw a video of Son House performing “Death Letter Blues.” The lyrics are so heavy. I’m really into writing songs and working on my lyrics too. It’s a challenge but I like it.

Are there any women guitar players you’ve been influenced by?

Yes, Bonnie Raitt - her slide playing is so good. I like Rory Block and Susan Tedeschi too. I play slide as well and use different guitars with single-coil pickups. I love it. It’s like singing.

• Erja Lyytinen's Another World is out now via Tuohi
• Sue Foley's latest album, The Ice Queen, is out now via Stony Plain Music

After winning a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Instrumental Soloist, Sharon Isbin became the first classical guitarist in 43 years to receive the award a second time, in 2010. 

She now has another major honor to celebrate: Isbin has been named the Musical America Worldwide Instrumentalist of the Year, making her the first guitarist to receive the annual award in its 59-year history. 

Known internationally as one of the world’s most acclaimed classical guitar players, Isbin is notable not only for her talent but also for her highly visible cross-genre collaborations with Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Stanley Jordan and Joan Baez, among others. 

And she’s done it all while becoming Julliard’s first guitar teacher in the school’s 115 years and founding its guitar department, where she remains chairwoman.

I caught up with Sharon to talk about her many career firsts and perspectives as a female musical artist.

How do you feel about being the world’s top female classical guitarist?

I don’t think about it very much because, frankly, the prejudice I have faced has been more about the instrument than about being a woman. It’s come from composers who are afraid of writing for guitar, or orchestras that are resistant to the idea of bringing in a guitar as a soloist. 

Look at the New York Philharmonic. They hadn’t had a guitar soloist in 26 years until I performed and recorded with them in 2004. It’s an instrument that has had to battle for acceptance.

How do you make a personal statement in a classical composition?

One of the easiest ways to think about classical guitar is that it performs the roles of many people. It’s the troubadour singing the upper line, and you’ve got the rhythm section and the harmony. 

So with all of that, it becomes much more demanding in terms of technique. It’s not just about strumming or picking a tune. It’s more complicated because you have to carry many independent threads and preserve their individuality.

What’s the difference between hearing you and another guitarist perform the same piece?

Expression. I communicate just as a writer communicates when they’re writing poetry or a novel. There’s something metaphysical, something intangible that reaches you. Your tone is your soul and the different colors that you can extract. I’ve heard many guitarists who play monochromatically, as if they’re painting only in black, white and grey.

Because of how you use your fingernails, your flesh and the angle of attack on the classical guitar, you have access to a variety of sounds. I grew up listening to singers, and that’s why they have been my models. My playing is different from many other guitarists because it seeks, in essence, to be the troubadour.

Do you think there is anything innately female or feminine that you bring to your music?

We all bring who we are. Men can be sensuous too. I think women are perhaps brought up to cultivate certain characteristics more than men, but none of that is really limited to gender.

As for me, I bring passion, because I am a passionate person. I bring a lot of feeling, because that’s who I am and what I experience. I bring sensuality, because that’s part of who I am as well. And what draws me to any form of art is beauty. That’s something I cultivate in music as well.

• Sharon Isbin's new album, Affinity, is out now via Zoho Classix.
• Sue Foley's latest album, The Ice Queen, is out now via Stony Plain Music