Making a Case for Her Right to Play the Blues : * Pop music: Gender and age have not hurt Canadian transplant Sue Foley, 23, whose lead guitar work surprises audiences.

Her style has been compared to the young Stevie Ray Vaughan’s, her voice to a youthful Bonnie Raitt’s, and when guitarist Sue Foley, 23, sends the notes pealing from her pink and silver Telecaster, she often surprises her audiences.

“They look at me and expect one thing, but when they hear me they get another,” said the diminutive, soft-spoken blues guitarist and singer, who appears at the Belly Up in Solana Beach tonight and the Palomino on Friday as part of the “Antone’s Women” tour--a package of Austin blueswomen featuring fellow newcomer Toni Price and veterans Lou Ann Barton, Angela Strehli, Barbara Lynn and Lavelle White.

Reviewers have called Foley’s playing “torrid” and “no-nonsense.” The Canadian transplant, inspired by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, began playing guitar at 13, and at 16 she was sneaking into Ottawa blues clubs to participate in weekly jam sessions.

Though it is still unusual in the blues field for a woman, especially one her age, to play lead guitar, she says audiences have been encouraging.

“People are taken by surprise when they see me,” Foley said. “Lead guitar is usually a guy thing, and when people see a young woman doing it they are taken aback. But when they hear me, they go, ‘Right on.’ ”

Though neither her gender nor her age has been a drawback, she looks forward to getting older and gaining experience as a musician.

“Women grow up faster than men and that shows in the way they play guitar,” Foley said. “When you’re playing the blues, everything that comes out is you and your experience. Women have more to say at a younger age.

“I can’t wait till I’m 40. Then I’ll be more soulful, and closer to where others like Angela Strehli and Lavelle White are musically.”

Foley moved to Austin via Vancouver and met her touring companions at Antone’s, the famed Austin jazz and blues club that has hosted major figures (James Cotton, Stevie Ray Vaughan) and up-and-coming talent. Antone’s started its own record label in 1987, signing Foley in 1990. Foley and company are all featured on a new sampler album, also called “Antone’s Women.”

Foley, whose first album, “Young Girl Blues,” was released earlier this year, hopes to see female blues artists gain more acceptance. She believes the popular emergence of Bonnie Raitt will help the music find a wider audience.

“Bonnie Raitt has familiarized so many people with the sound of R&B; and the blues, so people think it’s cool now,” Foley said. “I’ve been places before where people didn’t know what the blues is. She’s done so much for the industry, really.”

Raitt has also provided a high-profile alternative to the standard image of women in popular music, and Foley is eager to carry that banner.

“I hate the stereotype of women in music,” she said. “It’s about talent and soul, instead of a pretty face running across the screen like I see on music videos. . . . There are women who have done so much for music and the blues that need to be known on a wider scale.”