Joanna Connor

Chicago-based slide guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter, Joanna Connor, best known as one of the reigning Queens of blues rock guitar, releases her 14th album on Joe Bonamassa's new independent record label Keeping The Blues Alive. The new album, the follow up to her critically acclaimed studio album "Rise," was produced by Joe Bonamassa in Nashville. Joanna and Joe and the rest of the musicians on the album dug deeply and conjured up an authentic, alive and kicking set of Chicago Blues.

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.

The comparison of Connor to Bonnie Raitt is unavoidable, considering the similarities of their vocal style and skill at slide guitar. But Connor offers a more savage guitar approach, akin to George Thorogood, and she comes on as a bit nastier. The album is filled with impressive guitar work, but the bad-girl pose wears thin after a while.

CDs from this collection began to appear in the sale of one after the other in early 1998. The collection was designed primarily for fans of blues and those wishing to join him in France, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as its literary part was originally made in French and it seems and has not been translated into other languages.

These two discs reflect, in their way, the incredibly rich, varied lineage of women in the blues. And of course, given the title, we're not talking about singers – though many of these women do sing. With liner notes by Sue Foley, who compiled the set, this collection reaches backward and forward to mirror back to the culture the wild, wooly underside of the blues via its female six-string slingers. There are relative newcomers like Laura Chavez (who plays with Lara Price), Finland's Erja Lyytinen, and Austin's Eve Monses; seasoned veterans like Alice Stuart, Foley, Debbie Davies, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Joann Kelly, Rory Block, Bonnie Raitt with Maria Muldaur, Ellen McIlwaine…

Mike gathered up his buddies and they made a rocking tribute to the King of Rock n Roll Guitar, Chuck Berry. 20 tunes featuring 21 guest guitarists: Joe Bonamassa, Walter Trout, Robben Ford, Sonny Landreth, Richard Fortus, Alex Skolnick, Joanna Connor, Anders Osborne, Ryan Perry, Ally Venable, Albert Castiglia, Luther Dickinson, Jeremiah Johnson, Tommy Castro, Tinsley Ellis, Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher, Jimmy Vivino, Kid Andersen, and introducing Charlie Berry the 3rd!

Here you have a collection of great music by many of the finest singers ever to inhabit the world . Despite the album’s title, every song aboard is pure blues, but each and every one of the singers assembled here had the ability to turn even the cheesiest of ballads into something that dripped blues whenever they chose to heap up the required, highly personalised, emotion.

These 24-carat gold CD, characterized by exceptionally clear record. This is the result of the use and NoNOISE "SASS" (Sound Analysis and Synthesis System).