Information

•

Artists

•

Booking and Contact Details

•

Links and Other Services

•

Gig Dates

•

The Fletcher Christian

•

•

•

•

•

JOANNA CONNOR

printable biog page 1

printable biog page 2

"From the root to the fruit, from the seed to the flower.' Joanna Connor presents an intense. high energy. rhythmic. guitar-driven musical experience. Pushing the envelope of the blues by combining funk, rock and world beat, audiences are compelled to get on their feet.

She has shared the stage and toured with Jimmy Page, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Robert Cray, Poi Dog Pondering, Luther and Bernard Allison, Albert Collins, and Los Lobos. She has toured Europe 24 times and is the subject of WDR (German Television) documentary.

The Joanna Connor Band, on MC Records, is her eighth CD and combines gritty guitar work and impassioned vocals to drive home 14 songs that demonstrate a slow-cooked maturity as a songwriter.

BLUES REVIEW JOANNA CONNOR B.B. Blues Club & Grill, New York City by Eric Fine

Like the other guitar-wielding blues-women who emerged in the 199O's, Joanna Connor considers herself an instrumentalist first and foremost. So it wasn't surprising that she opened her show at B.B. King's with an instrumental. Perhaps the selection served to make a statement...that even though a woman happened to be fronting the band, the audience could expect more than just another gutsy voice accompanied by a rhythm section.

A cover of little Walter's "You're So Fine" and a couple of originals followed before Connor announced. "All right, it's slide time, everybody," Wearing a metal slide on her left pinkie, Connor played a flurry of loud distorted notes, then counted off and lurched into Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues." Connor ended the set with Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for My Darling." The song demonstrated that Connor had no desire to repackage the past. Connor said as much during a brief interview between sets. "I felt that what they did was so powerful.' she said of her Chicago mentors. "If I would try to be just like them, how could I compare? So I couldn't lie to myself and just play shuffles all night, because that's not me." "We're really not a strict blues band." Connor said, her thick accent betraying her New England roots. "I love blues, but that's kind of like foundation of the sound, and everything else is built on top of it.

Review, Playboy

The obvious comparison is Bonnie Raitt, since she's female and plays blues guitar. I say Connor's a soprano Johnny Winter. The thunderous distortion barrage that opens Robert Johnson's Walkin' Blues should dispel all doubt that women can't play as hard as men.

Most blues records miss the passion that made the original stuff so compelling. This one reclaims it all.