💿 ALBUM REVIEW: Joanna Connor - Live On 11/11
Joanna Connor is an absolute powerhouse on the Chicago scene, widely celebrated as the "Queen of Slide Guitar" for her fierce, lightning-fast fretwork. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Massachusetts, she fell in love with music early through her mom’s killer record collection, picking up the guitar at age seven and fronting local bands by 16. Driven to dive headfirst into real blues culture, she hopped a Greyhound bus to Chicago at age 22. She quickly made a name for herself jamming at legendary South Side spots like the Checkerboard Lounge and shared stages with icons like Buddy Guy , Junior Wells, and James Cotton . After a breakthrough stint with Dion Payton’s band, she launched her own powerhouse group in 1987 and dropped her praised debut album, Believe It! , in 1989. She spent the '90s touring the world but later scaled back to raise her kids, anchoring the Chicago scene with legendary, multi-decade residencies at Kingston Mines and the House of Blues . In 2014,...