Joanna Connor The Queen Of Blues-Rock, A Superb Guitarist, Respected All Over The World…One Of The Best Performers You’ll Ever See In Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo.
She is the most talented musical performer you’ll see in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo region in 2024. Maybe the best guitarist you’ll ever see in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. No fear in saying that. (We don’t sell used cars here friends)
We welcome Joanna to Mexico in January 2024. A true musician Big Heart who supports our big Street Animal Rescue Shelter and Musical Education for Disadvantaged Kids projects, who wants to come and have some fun together with us at our Fest. “Tell my fans, old and new, tell future musicians, to come and join in on the great blues rock fun in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, Mexico”
Bio Summary
Joanna Connor is widely regarded as one of the most talented blues rock guitarists and vocalists in the music industry. She has been praised by fellow performers and fans alike for her incredible musicianship, stage presence, and unique style.
Performance Video: Please Make Sure You Go To About 2 Minutes In To See The Amazing Joanna Connor playing guitar.
Many musicians have expressed their admiration for Joanna Connor’s talents. For example, Joe Bonamassa, a well-known blues rock guitarist, has said that Connor is “a great player and a great singer” and that he is “a big fan.” Buddy Guy, a legendary blues musician, has also praised Connor, saying, “Joanna’s got it all. She can play, she can sing, and she can write.”
Fans of Joanna Connor are equally enthusiastic about her music. On social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, fans frequently share videos of her performances and rave about her guitar playing and vocal abilities. Many describe her as a “hidden gem” and express their amazement that she is not more widely recognized in the music industry.
Overall, Joanna Connor is widely respected and admired for her talent and her contributions to the blues rock genre. Whether performing live or recording in the studio, she continues to impress audiences and fellow musicians with her incredible skills and musical vision.
“Music chose me. I vividly recall trying to sing Louis Armstrong’s ‘Hello Dolly’ in our Brooklyn apartment. It came on the radio often. I knew I was small, but when I researched what year this version was on the charts, I was floored by the realization that I was two years old!”
And so, Joanna Connor’s musical odyssey began. The soundtrack of her childhood in her adopted hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts was diverse and bounteous. The Blues was part of the lexicon. Joanna’s favorite record as a child was Taj Mahal’s “Take A Giant Step/ The Old Folks At Home”.
National and International accolades in the press and radio media resulted in a decade of world tours, a dozen recordings on Ruf Records, MC Records, and others, a documentary on Germany’s WDR Television, and a multitude of TV appearances and radio features.
Joanna and the band shared stages with Blues, Rock and Jazz greats, including Luther Allison, BB King, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Robben Ford, Danny Gatton, Robert Cray, Jimmy Page, ZZ Top, Joe Cocker, Etta James, and others.
With a current band of young virtuoso musicians, she dubbed the Wrecking Crew 23′, and fires were started worldwide on stages everywhere. Joanna reached out to one of her most beloved musicians, Mike Zito, and Gulf Coast Records In hopes that this tsunami of musical energy and passion could be unleashed on a record. Joanna Connor and The Wrecking Crew 23′ have found a musical home and place to launch their new record containing all original music. This highly anticipated album was released in the spring of 2023.
Website:
https://www.joannaconnorwreckingcrew.com/
Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/joannaconnorband/
Feature Article on Joanna from Guitar Player Magazine:
Feature Article on Joanna from Forbes Magazine
More Bio: from Spotify….click link for her music)
Since releasing the aptly titled Believe It! for Blind Pig in 1989, Chicago-based guitarist and singer/songwriter Joanna Connor has revealed herself as a virtuoso stylist in modern electric blues, R&B, and blues-rock. Her take-no-prisoners playing style joins fiery single-string runs to dazzling, rough-and-ready slide guitar pyrotechnics in an approach at once incendiary and deeply soulful. Connor is also an accomplished vocalist and songwriter. 1996’s Big Girl Blues drew accolades for its raw, house-rocking approach. Despite situating her blues approach firmly in the Chicago tradition, Connor is well-versed in the genre’s long history, amply revealed on 1998’s Slidetime. 2002’s Joanna Connor Band moved toward soulful blues-funk. After 2003’s Mercury Blues, she took a 12-year break from studio recording to raise children. In 2016 Connor returned with the globally acclaimed Six String Stories. The funky, horn-drenched soul blues of Rise followed in 2019. In early 2021 she issued the Joe Bonamassa-produced 4801 South Indiana Avenue.
Connor was born in Brooklyn, New York, but at age four her mother moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. She benefitted from her mother’s huge collection of blues and jazz recordings and was taken to see musicians like Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, and Buddy Guy in concert. She got her first guitar at age seven and devoted herself to blues and roots rock. At 16, she began singing in Worcester-area bands and formed the Pino/Connor Band with guitarist Ken Pino; they performed at clubs and colleges across New England. In 1984, at age 22, she boarded a Greyhound bus with a one-way ticket to Chicago. She spent her first three weeks in the Windy City haunting clubs and sitting in wherever she could. She approached Lonnie Brooks one evening, and he referred her to his rhythm guitarist Dion Payton. He invited her up to play and she left quite an impression; she was asked to replace Payton after he left. After joining the combo of slide guitar great Johnny Littlejohn a bit later, Payton invited Connor to join his popular 43rd Street Blues Band. Payton, a big draw locally, showcased her talents in prime city clubs such as Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S., and the Checkerboard Lounge. Connor set the town’s hallowed blues bars on fire with her slashing lead guitar work, her passionate slide solos, and soul-drenched vocals. With Payton, Connor was regularly featured alongside Chicago legends including James Cotton, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, and A.C. Reed. She performed with Payton at the 1987 Chicago Blues Festival. Later that year, she was ready to put her own band together.
Her 1989 debut for the Blind Pig label, Believe It! got her out of Chicago clubs and into clubs and festivals around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. From the beginning, Connor proved herself a road warrior, touring on her own, in package revues, and as a hired gun with other artists. 1992’s Fight registered on the blues charts in several countries. 1993’s Living on the Road and Rock and Roll Gypsy (1995) were cross-licensed by Germany’s Ruf Records label; they cemented her reputation as a headliner and radio staple across the continent. 1996’s Big Girl Blues charted in Europe and established her as a formidable singer as well as a guitarist. 1998’s Slidetime showcased her love of R&B and early blues. Nothing But the Blues, was a live recording of a 1999 show in Germany that appeared to rave reviews on the German In-Akustik label in 2001.
After playing in Deborah Coleman‘s bands for I Can’t Lose and Where Blue Begins, Connor left Blind Pig and signed to small indie label M.C. Records in 2002. Her debut, The Joanna Connor Band, found Connor expanding her sound to reflect her many musical interests that included funk, jazz, and soul. She issued Mercury Blues in 2003, a collaborative covers outing with Europe’s Mercury Ensemble, a cross-disciplinary chamber orchestra. Among its most notable selections were readings of Blind Faith‘s Can’t Find My Way Home,” Jimi Hendrix‘s “Manic Depression,” Aretha Franklin‘s “I Never Loved a Man,” and the Beatles, “Within You, Without You.”
Connor played locally while raising her children. She issued the live Unplugged at Carterco with Lance Lewis and appeared with mentor Luther Allison & Friends on Pay It Forward. Other than the self-released Live 24 cut at a Kingston Mines gig (when off the road, she continued to perform there three nights a week), she remained close to home, playing locally and on the summer festival circuit. In 2014, a fan’s live video captured an incendiary portion of her performance at the North Atlantic Blues Festival; it went viral on YouTube. Based on its success, M.C. Records coaxed her back into the studio for 2016’s Six String Stories. The set contained sophisticated originals co-written with longtime bandmate Lance Lewis as well as covers of Jill Scott‘s “Golden” and Elmore James‘ “The Sky Is Crying.” Connor even ventured into soul-gospel with “Heaven,” featuring the Lewis Family on backing vocals.
With her daughter at Indiana University on a basketball scholarship and her son making his way as a musician in the world, Connor hit the road, playing in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the U.S. She returned to M.C. Records for 2019’s Rise. Showcasing a new band, she embraced the stylistic restlessness of Joanna Connor Band and Six String Stories in a program of funky jazz, hard rock, modern blues, and R&B, with a couple of acoustic tracks added for good measure. Among its highlights were “Bad Hand” with Mike Zito, an instrumental cover of Sly Stone’s If You Want Me to Stay,” and the swinging jump jazz of “Joanna in A.” In 2020, Connor signed to Joe Bonamassa‘s Keeping the Blues Alive (KTBA) label. With guitarists Bonamassa and Josh Smith co-producing, Connor entered the Ocean’s Way Studio in Nashville as part of a three-guitar front line with an all-star cast of players who also included keyboardist Reese Wynans and bassist Calvin Turner, and a horn section. The goal was to cut a personal homage to the school of Chicago blues that nurtured her. To that end, she titled the set 4801 South Indiana Avenue — the address of legendary blues club Theresa’s Lounge that existed from 1951 to 1987 on the City’s South Side and was home to the city’s founding blues fathers. The set was announced in January with the issue of the single and video “I Feel So Good.” The ten-song full-length was released in February of 2021. The album debuted at number one on the blues charts.
The Joanna Connor Story (Youtube Video)
