Joanna Elphinston

Joanna Connor's fourth album for Blind Pig finds her still working solidly in blues-rock territory with plenty of her blistering slide guitar work well to the fore. Connor penned all 11 of the tunes here, co-writing one of them with guitarist Ron Johnson and the other with drummer Boyd Martin; her songwriting chops show considerable added depth and improvement on this go round. Still keeping her sound in the time-honored road-band format of two guitars, bass and drums. She brings aboard background vocals on "Slide It In," "Got To Have You" and "Pea Vine Blues," the latter also featuring some nice fingerpicked guitar from Ron Johnson. Connors' guitar positively blisters on "My Man," "Free Free Woman" and others, making this one of her strongest outings.

On the surface, Believe It! is standard-issue bar-band blues-rock, but it is distinguished by Joanna Connor's passion for the music. Connor believes in the music so much, it can't help but appear in the grooves every once in a while. In particular, her guitar playing is noteworthy – it's tough, greasy, and powerful. Believe It! suffers from a lack of memorable songs – she's still trying to develop a distinctive songwriting voice – but Connor's strong performances carry the album through any weak moments.

Joanna Connor is an American Chicago-based blues singer, songwriter, and virtuosa guitarist. 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. She covers the range of modern blues, slide guitar and blues rock with her own compositions very much influenced by funk, rock, jazz and world music as well as delta blues. Her sense of melody, phrasing and dynamics along with a very modern technique make her a very funky, soulful and compelling guitarist. As for vocal abilities, if Joanna wasn't a guitarist, she could easily be a lead singer in any band.

When veteran blueswoman Joanna Connor issued the Joe Bonamassa-produced 4801 South Indiana Avenue in 2021, it introduced her gritty, wildly adventurous guitar pyrotechnics to a new generation of blues lovers. On its follow-up, Best of Me, on Mike Zito's Gulf Coast Records label, Connor had complete control in the studio, and she delivers a multi-dimensional portrait of her work. Cut in Chicago with her road band and a cast of top-shelf guests including the Grooveline Horns and alternating support guitarists Zito, Bonamassa, Josh Smith, and Gary Hoey, the album was co-produced by Connor and her bassist/songwriting partner Shaun Gotti Calloway, and her drummer Jason "J Roc" Edwards.