PETER KARP & SUE FOLEY
Beyond the Crossroads
Blind Pig 5132

www.blindpigrecords.com
 

This latest chapter in the bluesy, chemistry-rich Karp and Foley alliance was recorded in studios in both Winnipeg, Canada and New Jersey and features the duo’s road band (drummer Mike Catapano and bassist Niles Terrat) along with old friends like fellow bass player Mike Turenne and drummer Ken McMahon as well as the renowned Swingadelic Horns (with compelling arrangements by tenor saxist Paul Carlon). All twelve titles are Karp/Foley originals or collaborations, with the pair’s plangent vocals, singly or together, accompanied by plenty of Foley’s Fender Telecaster fretwork and Karp’s candidly incisive handiwork on his National Steel ResoRocket slide and Gibson 335 guitars. Picks begin with the resolutely optimistic opener “We’re Gonna Make It,” a fiery instrumental guitar jam appropriately titled “Plank Spank” and the nostalgic “Take Your Time,” featuring a particularly sly vocal turn from Foley. A just-as-entertaining follow-up to last year’s concept album He Said—She Said.

— Gary von Tersch