Joanna Connor – Rock And Roll Gypsy (1995)

What sets Joanna Connor apart from the rest of the pack of guitar-playing female blues singers is her skill on the instrument. Even though Connor has become an accomplished singer over time, her first love was guitar playing, and it shows in her live shows and on her recordings.

Brooklyn-born, Massachusetts-raised Joanna Connor was drawn to the Chicago blues scene like a bee to a half-full soda can. Connor, a fiery guitarist raised in the 1970s — when rock & roll was all over the mass media — just wanted to play blues. She was born August 31, 1962, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised by her mother in Worcester, MA. She benefitted from her mother’s huge collection of blues and jazz recordings, and a young Connor was taken to see people like Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder and Buddy Guy in concert.

Connor got her first guitar at age seven. When she was 16, she began singing in Worcester-area bands, and when she was 22, she moved to Chicago. Soon after her arrival in 1984, she began sitting in with Chicago regulars like James Cotton, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy and A.C. Reed. She hooked up with Johnny Littlejohn’s group for a short time before being asked by Dion Payton to join his 43rd Street Blues Band. She performed with Payton at the 1987 Chicago Blues Festival. Later that year, she was ready to put her own band together.

Her 1989 debut for the Blind Pig label, Believe It!, got her out of Chicago clubs and into clubs and festivals around the U.S., Canada and Europe. Her other albums include 1992’s Fight for Blind Pig (the title track a Luther Allison tune), Living on the Road (1993) and Rock and Roll Gypsy (1995), the latter two for the Ruf Records label. Slidetime on Blind Pig followed in 1998 and Nothing But the Blues, a live recording of a 1999 show in Germany, appeared on the German Inakustik label in 2001. Connor left Blind Pig and signed to small indie label M.C. in 2002. Her first release for her new label, The Joanna Connor Band, finds Connor expanding her sound a bit in an attempt to reach a more mainstream audience.

Connor has blossomed into a gifted blues songwriter. Her songwriting talents, strongly influenced by greats like Luther Allison, will insure that she stays in the blues spotlight for years to come. (by Richard Skelly)

Alternate front + backcover

And here´s her second album for the German label Ruf Records and it´s a down to earth album, raw, old time blues with some fine Gospel and soul elements. Good for the soul and mind.

This album included a fine version of “Fire” by Jimi Hendrix and a guest appearance of Luther Allison.

And we can hear this superb slide-guitar by one of the finest Blues ladies from the last decades.

Personnel:
Joanna Connor (guitar, slide-guitar, vocals)
Stan Mixon (bass)
Larry Ortega (drums, percussion)
Tony Palmer (guitar)
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Luther Allison (guitar, vocals on 04.)
Johann Janssen (pedal steel-guitar)
Buzz Killman (harmonica)
Frank Niedlander (saxophone)
Roel Spanjers (keyboards)
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background vocals:
Andrea Variames – Bertram Brown – William Brown

Tracklist:
01. Never Been Rocked Enough (McClinton/Seals) 3.27
02. Rock & Roll Gypsy (Connor) 4.04
03. Howlin’ (Traditional) 3.55
04. Slipping Away (Allison) 5.26
05. Rain On My Window (Walker) 4.53
06. Think About Me (Seay/Derek) 5.13
07. Driving Wheel (Sykes) 3.47
08. You’re So Fine (Connor/Rogers) 5.08
09. Fire (Hendrix) 2.52
10. You’re Going With Me (Pomus) 5.04
11. Child Of Two Worlds (Connor) 3.29

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Joanna Connor – Six String Stories (2016)

“Six String Stories” was Joanna Connor’s first studio album release in 14 years !

In the language of social media, the video clip of Joanna Connor at the 2014 North Atlantic Blues Festival went viral. She gives the rapt audience a three minute display of her astounding slide guitar playing, a performance that has been viewed over 870,000 times on-line. For many people, that may have been their first exposure to Connor – but Chicago-area fans have reveling in her club performances for several decades, reaching back to her first release, Believe It, in 1989 on Blind Pig Records.

After a fourteen year recording hiatus that had Connor focusing on raising her daughter, she is back with her second release for M.C. Records. Exploring that vast territory where blues and rock converge, she offers plenty of fiery playing that mirrors what viewers saw in the video. Take “Halsted Street,” a brooding instrumental with some gentle acoustic guitar wrapped around eerie, effects-laden electric tones. Suddenly, her guitar erupts with a solo sequence that would make Eddie Van Halen proud. The slow blues, “We Stayed Together,” centers on her impassioned vocal bracketed by two penetrating guitar interludes.

Her slide guitar dominates the first two tracks. On “It’s A Woman’s Way,” Connor encourages her daughter to take advantage of the expanding opportunities available to women, then illustrates the message with taut slide licks over the hard-charging rhythm laid down by Marion Lance Lewis on drums, bass, and percussion. Personal relationships are explored on “By Your Side,” but it quickly becomes apparent that any man would struggle to match the attachment Connor has to her guitar. The ballad “Golden,” penned by Jill Scott, shifts to a softer approach centered on the acoustic guitar and Jeff Lewis on an electronic keyboard A spoken passage finds the singer asserting, “I am not second-rate or an after-thought for anybody. Come direct or don’t come at all. No silver or bronze for me!”

“Love Coming On Strong” is a primal stomp about love swirling out of control, following the instrumental “Swamp Swim,” with guest Omar Coleman’s harp intertwining with unearthly slide tones to form a haunting sonic landscape. Connor shifts to a more positive frame of mind on “Heaven,” the arrangement bolstered by Charlie Kimble on tenor sax, Gary Solomon on alto & soprano sax, and Charles Pryor on trumpet/flugelhorn. Lewis is moved by the spirit, preaching with the fervor of true believer. A staple of her shows, Connor shows her interpretive skills on a live recording of the Elmore James classic, “The Sky Is Crying,” her nimble six-string phrasing mirroring the agony in her voice. “Young Women Blues” is a dreamy stroll that mixes jazz elements through a tremolo-induced haze.

Appropriately titled, Six String Stories should build on the world-wide interest generated by that short video. Once people hear Joanna’s new disc, no one is going to classifying her as as anything other than first-rate. (Mark Thompson)

Personnel:
Omar Coleman (harmonica)
Joanna Connor (guitar, vocals)
Charlie Kimble (saxophone)
Jeff Lewis (keyboards)
Marion Lance Lewis (bass, drums, percussion, synthesizer, vocals)
Charles “Richard” Pryor (flugelhorn, trumpet)
Gary Solomon (saxophone)
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background vocals:
Hope Lewis – Steve Lewis

Tracklist:
01. It’s A Woman’s Way (Connor/M.Lewis) 4.11
02. Your Side (Connor/M.Lewis) 5.05
03. We Stayed Together (Connor/M.Lewis) 5.32
04. Golden (Bell/Robinson/Robinson/Scott) 4.32
05. Swamp Swim (Connor/M.Lewis) 4.09
06. Love Coming On Strong (Connor/M.Lewis) 4.00
07.  Heaven (Connor/M.Lewis) 5.58
08. Halsted Street (Connor/M.Lewis) 4.39
09. The Sky Is Crying (Robinson/Lewis/James) 5.47
10. Young Women Blues (Connor/M.Lewis) 4.30

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