Joanna has played guitar with the who’s who of blues including the likes of James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Page, and Junior Wells. Debuting at Chicago’s premiere blues club Kingston Mines in the 1980s, she played there three nights a week ever since, in between gigs at larger clubs and festivals, before the spread of the pandemic earlier this year.
An aggressively edgy and highly innovative blues rock guitarist with a tight groove that encompasses jazz and funk, Joanna’s hailed by many as one of the most powerful and influential female guitarists on the planet.
“Music chose me. I vividly recall trying to sing like Louis Armstrong’s ‘Hello Dolly’ in our Brooklyn apartment. It came on the radio often. I knew I was small, but when I researched what year this version was on the charts, I was floored with the realisation that I was two years old!”
And so, Joanna Connor’s musical odyssey began. The soundtrack of her childhood in her adopted hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts was diverse and bounteous. The Blues was part of the lexicon. Joanna’s favourite record as a child was Taj Mahal’s “Take A Giant Step/ The Old Folks At Home”.
The new album, the follow up to her critically acclaimed studio album “Rise,” is produced by Joe Bonamassa at Ocean Way Nashville Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. Joanna and Joe and the rest of the musicians on the album dug deeply and conjured up an authentic, alive and kicking non-derivative set of Chicago Blues.
We got the chance to have a chat with Joanna and you can see what she had to say below.
Joanna Connor’s new album “4801 South Indiana Avenue” is released by KTBA Records on February 26th via www.jbonamassa.com/albums/2021/joannaconnor/4801
You can read our review of the album here: https://www.totalntertainment.com/music/4801-south-indiana-avenue-album-review/
