Once she stepped off a greyhound bus in Chicago in October of 1984, it took Joanna but a few months to take the city¹s highly competitive blues circuit by storm. Chicago magazine hailed her as »the most exciting new talent on the blues scene.« The Chicago Sun-Times called her »a powerhouse guitarist with a sense of rock dynamics - her playing has a fire that is free of self-indulgence.«

Joanna Connor and her searing slide guitar work have been raising eyebrows of blues aficionados and critics everywhere ever since. As the Boston Globe noted, »She brings a revved-up rock flavor to the blues with a desire to move the music forward, not just embalm it.«

»From the root to the fruit, from the seed to the flower,« Joanna Connor presents an intense, high-energy, rhythmic, virtuostic, 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. Joanna's soulful voice and guitar mastery has received accolades from publications such as Guitar Player, Guitar World, The Village Voice, Playboy Magazine, Billboard, Downbeat, Relix, and most major newspapers. 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 26 times and is the subject of a WDR (German Television) documentary.

Joanna has also led workshops overseas and in the U.S. Recently she was featured at the South By Southwest Music Showcase, and on PBS' Mountain Stage, the House of Blues Radio Hour, and XM Satellite Radio's Bluesville. 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.



What they are saying about the CD »The Joanna Connor Band:«

»Connor and her band deliver their snappy blues rock with vigor, wit and smarts«
San Diego Union Tribune

»Sultry slide mistress stretches her wings on mostly original set of varied grooves«
Guitar One

» a promising new direction & pulls a wider variety of tones and riffs from her ax than ever.« Pulse

»The results are impressive, musically and thematically« Offbeat

»It's all good« Vintage Guitar Magazine

»the music is consistently inspired and innovative« Blues Revue aug./sept. 2002