Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Ana Popovic, Castel San Pietro Blues Festival, 01/06/08










Having seen a concert or two in my life (with Ms. Popovic, that makes 162!), you could say I’ve also seen a few great guitarists here and there. And I have to safely say that 99% of them have been men, until Ana Popovic came along. It was indeed refreshing to see one “hot” female performer (and a great guitarist too!) for once come along on a stage and sort of “knock your socks off”, as was the case with Belgrade’s 32 year-old Popovic!

She’s come along way from her native Belgrade (she lives in Holland and travels with her 5 year-old son Luuk) with her first group Ush in 1998 right up to her latest album, “Still Making History” which was recorded in 2007 at the House of Blues in L.A. (apparently, the album has been in the top U.S. charts for some 14 weeks). And it’s the U.S. which has also helped to launch her career internationally-speaking.

Quite the slide-guitarist, Ana has also played with the likes of Taj Mahal and Solomon Burke. She’s also taken part in the prestigious “Blues Cruise” in 2006 with the likes of Hammond, Cotton, Hubert Sumlin and others. In 2006 she also received 6 nominations at the “Living Blues Awards”, including “Best Live Performer” and “Best Female Blues Artist”.

Quite the honour I must say to see this young female blues artists as the Castel San Pietro gig was her only Italian concert in 2008 before her long and upcoming tour of the U.S. Ana packed quite the heavy punch and concluded her set with Jimi Hendrix’s “House Burning Down”, a song, as she herself said, most appropriate for the situation which had hit her native Yugoslavia years ago and which still today haunts many countries in the world (all pics by M. Rimati).

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