Sue Foley brings a holiday show to the Pour House, her first Triangle date since 2018

The Grammy-nominated blues guitarist plays The Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh on Friday, Dec. 18, eight years after her last Raleigh–Durham stop.

A week before Christmas, most holiday shows are leaning on sleigh bells. Sue Foley is bringing a guitar.

Foley plays The Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh on Friday, Dec. 18, in a show the venue bills as "Sue Foley: Alone Together for the Holidays." Tickets are through the Pour House. The date was announced Oct. 27, and it's Foley's first show in the Raleigh–Durham area since Oct. 19, 2018, at The Blue Note Grill.

Eight years is a long time, and Foley has made good use of it. Her most recent album, *One Guitar Woman*, was nominated for the 2025 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album, according to her Wikipedia entry. The title is a fair summary of what it's like to watch her: a singer, songwriter and guitarist known for a fiery Texas blues style, carrying a set on her own playing.

This December she's leaning into the season. Elsewhere on the East Coast she's on a run of "Together for the Holidays" shows with GA-20, including a Dec. 4 date at Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, Conn., and a Dec. 6 stop at Brooklyn Bowl. The Tobin Center in San Antonio, which hosts one of her holiday dates, says the shows come with a brand-new holiday recording due this fall. The Raleigh bill's title, "Alone Together," is the venue's own, and it's a twist on that tour name worth noticing when you buy your ticket.

The Pour House is a good room for this kind of night. At under 300 capacity, it's built for watching hands on a fretboard, close enough to see the work that goes into the tone. For a player whose reputation rests on that kind of detail, a room this size is a gift to the audience, and a holiday show in a downtown rock club makes for a very different December evening than another round of carols.

For Triangle blues fans, this one has been a long time coming. In 2018, Foley played the Blue Note Grill. Since then she's been nominated for a Grammy, made a record built around her own guitar, and started putting together a holiday project. All of that arrives in one Friday night.

What to expect: blues first, holidays second, if the tour's framing holds. A new seasonal recording suggests some fresh material, and Foley's own catalog is deep enough to fill any gaps. The details of the set are hers to reveal.

Tickets are at the Pour House link above. Get there early, find a spot with a sightline to her hands, and consider it an early present to yourself.

Sources: Sue Foley: Alone Together for the Holidays — The Pour House Music Hall (pourhouseraleigh.com); Sue Foley — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Sue Foley & GA-20: Together for the Holidays — Infinity Music Hall (infinityhall.com); Sue Foley & GA-20 — Brooklyn Bowl (brooklynbowl.com); Sue Foley — Tobin Center (tobincenter.org)