Ana Popovic

Yugoslavian blues-rock guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Ana Popovic delivers fiery, passionate playing and singing that appeals to listeners beyond strict blues purists. Her introduction to the blues came early thanks to her father's extensive record collection and the jam sessions he organized at their Belgrade home. On May 13, 1976, Popovic was born, and as a teenager she picked up the guitar before founding her initial group, Hush, during 1995. Shortly thereafter, amid the fall of Communism across Eastern Europe, she began appearing at blues festivals throughout Greece and Hungary while serving as an opener for U.S. blues legends such as Junior Wells.

In 1999 Popovic cut her first album alongside Hush at the same moment she relocated to the Netherlands to pursue jazz guitar along with world and pop music studies at the Conservatory of Music. There she caught blues guitarist Bernard Allison performing at a German club and joined him onstage for a closing jam. Although Allison extended an invitation to tour, she returned instead to the Jazz Academy in Holland; he forwarded a copy of her Hush recording to executives at Ruf Records in Germany, who responded to her commanding guitar work and vocals by placing her on their Jimi Hendrix tribute compilation and then offering her a solo contract.

Months later she traveled to Memphis to lay down Hush!, which found favor with blues radio programmers and with non-purist audiences on American, European, and Canadian festival stages. During spring 2001 she shared the bill at the Memphis in May Festival with Bob Dylan, the Black Crowes, and Ike Turner. Within five years of departing Yugoslavia, the artist then in her late twenties had performed at major European blues events including Peer, Bishopstock, and Notodden while sitting in with Allison, Michael Hill, and Kenny Neal.

Two releases appeared on the New Jersey-based Ruf Records America imprint: Hush! from 2000 and Comfort to the Soul from 2003. Jim Gaines and David Z., veterans of sessions with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, and Jonny Lang, handled recording and mixing duties on both. Comfort to the Soul showcases five of Popovic’s sparkling originals, among them her homage to the tragic life of jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius drawn from a book she read, plus the album opener “Don’t Bear Down on Me (I’m Here to Steal the Show).” She also supplies inventive covers of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sitting on Top of the World” and Steely Dan’s “Night by Night.”

Popovic appears as a guest on Hill’s 2003 two-disc Electric Storyland live set. That same year she earned a W.C. Handy Blues Award nomination for Best New Artist of the Year and became the first European performer at the Handy Awards. Two years later she issued her debut live package, the audio/video Ana! Live in Amsterdam, which led to four Living Blues Award nominations including Best Female Blues Artist and Most Outstanding Musician. Between 2007 and 2011 she placed three albums with Eclecto Groove Records, among them Still Making History and Unconditional, both of which reached the top of the blues charts.

After moving her residence and operations to Memphis, Tennessee, in 2012, Popovic signed with the ArtisteXclusive label and released Can You Stand the Heat in 2013; the album climbed to number three on the blues albums chart. At that year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival she unveiled a newly formed nonet billed as Ana Popovic & Mo’ Better Love. Following worldwide touring she and her father Milton co-released Blue Room in 2015, a set of blues and rock covers. During the tour the band’s van and equipment were stolen, yet fans helped them complete the dates. Popovic decided to record a thank-you gesture and embarked on her most ambitious undertaking. Long struck by fans’ habit of separating her varied styles into genre-specific playlists, she composed fifteen of twenty-three songs across distinct idioms and delivered the thematically linked Trilogy in 2016, perhaps the only triple album by a blues artist. The opening disc, “Morning,” constitutes her funk and R&B statement. Co-produced by Warren Riker and Popovic and tracked in New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville in Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida, it features a large ensemble with horn section plus guest appearances by Joe Bonamassa on “Train” and Robert Randolph on “Hook Me Up.” The second disc, “Mid-Day,” presents Popovic’s signature blues-rock and was produced variously by Riker in New Orleans, Tom Hambridge in Nashville, and Cody Dickinson in Mississippi. The closing disc, “Midnight,” explores her jazz inclinations and contains more covers than the others, drawing from Tom Waits, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. Recorded at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans and produced by Delfeayo Marsalis, the set reached number ten on the blues charts despite its size. Popovic assembled her expanded band for an eighteen-month global tour. In 2018 she entered a Nashville studio with producer Keb Mo’ to cut the concept album Like It on Top, ten tracks addressing varied forms of female empowerment that include guest spots from the producer plus guitarists Robben Ford and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Issued in late summer, the record entered the Top 20 of the Heatseeker chart.