SPILL LIVE REVIEW: SUE FOLEY: AN INTIMATE EVENING – GUITAR WOMEN BOOK SIGNING & SOLO SHOW @ EL MOCAMBO, TORONTO

SUE FOLEY: AN INTIMATE EVENING – GUITAR WOMEN BOOK SIGNING & SOLO SHOW

@ EL MOCAMBO, TORONTO

OCTOBER 14, 2026

Toronto’s iconic El Mocambo was the perfect venue for an intimate evening with Canadian Blues icon Sue Foley. The multiple award winner marked the release of her recent book, Guitar Women: Conversations & Life Lessons with Six-String Heroines with an evening that consisted of a Question-and-Answer session, a live solo performance, a meet-and-greet, and a book signing. 

The evening began with a sit down between Foley and Mike Chalut, TV and radio personality as well as Executive Director of the El Mocambo. Foley is calm and personable, making Chalut’s exuberance was a perfect complement. Chalut also strolled through the audience, handing individual audience members the microphone to ask their own questions.

Foley shared with the audience the struggle she had between seeing herself as a musician having to transform herself into a writer. She also shared why it was important to her to share these stories. She has seen the scene evolve from the inside and felt the need to share the evolution. She also shared about her favourite interview, the last in the book, interviewing Etta Baker in her own home, when Baker was 91 years old. What an honour that must have been. Writing the book was more of a cerebral exercise for her and she felt that how the women had navigated their way through the industry was more of an influence on her personally than their music was on her music. Foley feels that the gap between men and women in the industry is much smaller today than it ever was and “that people are much more even minded about it.” At the end, former MuchMusic VJ, Erica Ehm, joined Foley onstage for a final chat, where she shared her preparation for writing the book.

SPILL BOOK REVIEW: SUE FOLEY – GUITAR WOMEN: CONVERSATIONS & LIFE LESSONS WITH SIX-STRING HEROINES

The Q&A portion of the evening was followed by a solo set by Foley, performing songs from her 2024 Grammy-nominated album One Guitar Woman. The album consists of covers of songs written and recorded by pioneering women guitarists from the late 1920s to the 1950s. Foley is an engaging storyteller, and each song was introduced with interesting and informative anecdotal stories about the women she was honouring. The artists and songs on the album were chosen to represent not only a period in time, but a different style of blues and finger picking styles. Interestingly, two of the songs included were not merely covers.  For “Mal Hombre,” by Lydia Mendoza, Foley translated the lyrics to English. “Maybelle’s Guitar” was not written or recorded by Maybelle Carter, but was an original song written by Foley, based on the “Carter scratch,” which was a method used and pioneered by “Mother” Maybelle Carter, June Carter Cash’s mother.

The set culminated on a magical high note with the inclusion of “”Malagueña,” a song written by Ernesto Lecuona and arranged by Sue Foley, but recorded and popularised by flamenco legend, Charo. Charo, who was a popular guest on many variety shows throughout the late 1960s to the 1980s, was a child guitar prodigy. She was well-known for her comicality and vivaciousness. Charo would however magically transform when she began to play the guitar. Performing a classical flamenco guitar piece physically takes over the guitarist, and when Foley began playing, her performance was absolutely hypnotic.

Throughout the discussion and the performance, what was most evident was the intense admiration Sue Foley feels for all of her guitar heroines, the same admiration that the reader feels when reading Guitar Women: Conversations & Life Lessons with Six-String Heroines. Sue Foley has made it her mission to share the stories of not only the women who came before her, but of her own peers and contemporaries. It was also evident that there are so many more stories to be told. Having read the book in advance, tonight’s candid and intimate session was highly informative, and it was fascinating to gain more insight into Sue Foley herself. Many of the women’s stories that she has recorded were not included in this book. It would be wonderful to see another volume, which hopefully would include her story as well, as she is for many young women guitarists today – a Six-String Heroine.

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