Joanna Connor – Best of Me
www.joannaconnorwreckingcrew.com
11 songs – 39 minutes
Based out of Chicago since age 17, Joanna Connor hit the top of the Billboard blues-album chart with 4801 Indiana Avenue two years ago and returns in style with this powerful disc, which features contributions from world-class talent across the blues spectrum.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Worcester, Mass., Joanna hit the street running when she arrived in the Windy City via Greyhound bus in 1979. Shortly thereafter, John Littlejohn — one of the city’s best slide guitarists ever – began mentoring her as a member of his own ensemble before Dion Payton recruited her to join his 43rd Street Blues Band, an act that for years headlined at both the Checkerboard Lounge and the Kingston Mines in addition to backing major talent across the city.
Connor also toured the world behind sax great A.C. Reed for a while before founding her own band in the mid-‘80s at the insistence of Mines owner Doc Pellegrino. Her recording career began with Believe It in 1989, and she’s enjoyed long stints at Blind Pig, Germany’s Ruf – where she was just the second artist signed to the label – and M.C. In 2002, however, as the single mother of two young children, she made the difficult decision to stop touring in order to raise them.
She’s been back in the international spotlight since 2019, when Joe Bonamassa and movie director Adrian Lynne of Flash Dance fame became enthralled with her blazing guitar skills after viewing one of her videos. Not only did Lynne enlist her for a scene in his 2022 release, Deep Water – starring Ben Affleck, but Bonamassa offered her the opportunity to cut 4801 Indiana Avenue for his KTBA Records.
This disc unites Joanna with Mike Zito’s Gulf Coast imprint. It features her regular touring band, the Wrecking Crew: bassist Shaun Gotti Calloway, guitarist/keyboard player Dan Souvigny, keyboard player Curtis Moore Jr. and percussionist Jason J Roc Edwards. The roster’s fleshed out by Bonamassa, Josh Smith, Gary Hoey and Zito on guitars, Jason Ricci on harp and David Abbruzzese on drums along with the Grooveline Horns – Fernando Castillo (trumpet/flugelhorn) and Carlos Sosa (sax/flute), Raul Vallejo (trombone) and Eric Demmer on sax.
A smoking-hot mix of ten blues-drenched soul, rock, funk and country originals penned by Calloway and Connor along with a single cover, the action opens with an introduction emcee Frank Pellegrino in front of an enthusiastic live audience at the Mines before the band explodes into “House Rules,” a driving, horn-fueled shuffle in which Connor’s vocal makes it clear that listeners should be getting their butts on the dance floor instead of standing at the bar or engaged in a side conversation. The action that follows truly drives her message home.
The minor-key “Pain and Pleasure” – aided by Smith — starts slowly but quickly evolves atop a funky Latin beat. It celebrates the dawning of a new romance and the wish for permanency but the realization that everything could end in a heartbeat. The sound sweetens and the guitars give way to horns for the ballad, “Best of Me.” Joanna’s voice soars as she addresses the down side of a broken heart.
Bonamassa’s featured on “Highway Child,” a fiery, country-tinged rocker that celebrates being a road dog, before sweeping six-string flourishes open “I Lost You,” a powerful ballad in which Connor promises to be the last to say goodbye as the relationship draws to a close. Her mid-tune solo bares her pain. The heat’s on high once again for the driving “Two of a Kind,” in which Joanna finds symmetry in romance again, a commemoration that continues in “All I Want Is You.”
Robert Geddins and K.C. Douglas’ country classic, “Mercury Blues,” gets a thoroughly modern makeover before the rocker “Shadow Lover” serves up a request for undercover romance. The sound sweetens dramatically for the passionate ballad “Greatest of These,” a celebration of overcoming troubles, before Hoey and Ricci join the action for the percussive, upbeat rocker, “Shine On,” to close.
Joanna Connor is a force of nature as both a guitarist and vocalist who’s deserved far more attention than she’s received in her career. One listen to this CD should have the spotlight shining on her brightly for years to come.
