Joanna Connor cOmes home Playing whatever the funk she wants :I By (het Williamson iCk.Think of the most famous radio station WCUW, 91.3 FM, as host for That same year, while organizing the usician to come au t of the show Blues Hit Bigtown. first edition of her own band, Connor was orcester in the last 50 years. Connor turned professional at the age hired by saxophonist A.C. Reed, who took QYou could name a big band of 19, forming the Pino/Connor band with Connor out on tour. Her reputation blos- full of jazz cats such as Jaki Byard, Don guitarist Ken Pino. A band that once fea- somed still further when she smoked at a Fagerquist and Barbara Carroll. Off the tured bass ace Wolf Ginandes and drum- benefit concert for blues queen Koko wrote actually had a lot of soul and rock top of your head, you'd most likely name mer Kennard Johnson, who recorded Taylor. and funk and some people don't like that. Duke Levine. But he is largely a player extensively with James Cotton. The band Two years later Connor officially It was a crossover for blues audiences. I with only regional following. was a mainstay at Ralph's and Gilrein's arrived with the Blind Pig release of her think that's what it was. Blind Pig is pri You could name a deep bench full of and worked all over New England. In debut, Believe It. The album was awarded marily a label that targets a pretty heavy rock 'n' rollers such as those who support- blues audience. ed Joe Cocker namely, Cliff Goodwin, "I think it slow'ed my writing up a bit. Mitch Chakour and John Riley. We did get some good reviews from Let's see ... Ken Pino spent sixyears wI,ith Billboard. Playboy gave us a great review. Johnny Copeland. Marc Barnicle, Craig And Guitar World. So we had some really McIntyre and Michael O'Connell arc tour- good reviews. But it was either people ing witli Shirley Lewis. loved the record or they hated it. There Remember Orpheus? And Jamie was no in between. It was hard for me Brockett ... because I wrote so much of it. And it was What about Joanna Connor? She grew really a more personal record. up in Worcester. Who is she? She is a "I have to please myself first. I can't - blues diva who, in storybook fashion, I'm not going to do an album and just play caught a Greyhound to Chicago to the blues because that's what is expected of blues mecca of the universe to study me. I have to be honest with myself. I don't with the masters. She did. That was want to ever go into a studio and play it almost a decade ago. Since then she has safe for people who are more tradition- toured the world, has three albums under minded than myself." her own name with a fourth one on the Fight was produced by Jim Gaines, a way. Her latest, in fact, is Living on the Grammy Award winner with such artists Road. She's even entered in the recent edi- as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana and Steve tion of the Big Book of Blues, a biographi- Miller. He was so impressed by Joanna's cal encyclopedia published by Penguin talent that he worked on her latest and is Books: "Joanna Connor is a singer and producing her fourth. The new release guitarist known for her searing slide work. Living on the Road was recorded live in Like Rory Block, Sue Foley and Bonnie 1993 from a performance at the Franz Raitt, Connor has given contemporary Club in Berlin. Her vocal heroes - Etta blues guitar a refreshing female slant." James, Ann Peebles and Aretha Franklin A fiery young player who calls herself shout out and her guitar heroes - Jalapeno Mama, Connor has become a Luther Allison, Buddy Guy and Jeff Beck guitar god on the blues-rock circuit. - ring out. Especially the gods and god- "Goddess. Guitar goddess," she desses: Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Lowell laughed. correcting my sexist remark. George and Johnny Winter. All the ghosts "My playing is getting better. You know, showup. it is just from doing it so much and lis- "The live album is all new stuff, nothing tening. It's from playing with good musi- from other albums,"~Connor said. "I didn't cians. feel like my career was old enough to do "You know, I've been messing around something like that. Basically, some of the for a while now," Connor said, speaking songs we had been doing, and some of the by phone fTOmher home in Evanston, m., songs we learned for the record." just outside of Chicago. "It has been get- The album features three originals and ting a lot of notice, especially the slide seven covers, ranging from roadhouse playing. That's why we did the live album rockers like Delbert McClinton's "My too. We really featured the guitar playing. Baby's Loving" and lohnny Copeland's It is more a performance album rather "Boogie Woogie Nighthawk" to songs than a song album per se." 1983, Connor was named "Best R&B critical acclaim internationally. Todaythe from the woman's perspective such as It's always a homecoming of sorts when Vocalist of the Year" in the Worcester Joanna Connor Band is a fixture on the "Good Woman Gone Bad,"' 'Wildfire she returns to Worcester. The Joanna Magazine readers poll. The fol- blues circuit around the world. Woman" and her own "lalapeno Mama."~ Connor Band, featuring guitarist Tony lowing year she left for "This year was probably She also sings her heart out on "At the Palmer, bassist Stan Mixon and drummer Chicago, our busiest year ever," Dark End of the Street." Her band has Larry Ortega play Saturday, Nov. 19, at Almost immediately '[if.!; Connor said. 'We were on been with her for a couple of years now, Gilrein's, 802 Main St. Connor got swept up in the the road from like January to and it sounds like it. Connor was born in Brooklyn on Aug. Windy City's active blues Joanna Connor October just nonstop. We "This band sounds like a real band," 31, 1962. Her family moved to Worcester scene. She got to jam with went to Europe three times in Connor said in agreement. "We all get when she was 4. Her mother listened to musicians she had idolized all her life- that period. My son traveled with us all along and everybody is really cooperative blues. The records of Billie Holiday, Taj Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and James Cotton. summer. He's 7. He loved it. He plays and willing to try new things and take crit- Mahal and Jimi Hendrix were played Her first gig was with the late great slide drums and he played with us every night" icism or contribute ideas. You know, we around the house and young Joanna was guitarist Johnny Littlejohn, In 1985 she Connor's second album Fight was are on the road so much that it is real born hearing the music. She started play- joined Dion Payton and his popular 43rd smacked with a sophomore jinx. Critics important to like each other. And we do. I ing guitar at the age of 7. Many remember St. Band. The band is featured on the wavered. And the cool reception left her have no problem with them about me her gigging around town with AIArsenault Alligator compilation New Bluebloods, cold. being a woman. Some men really have a and Ronnie Sloan while still in her teens. and critics hailed her performance at the "I think the record was too commer- hard time dealing with that. They don't. So She could also be heard spinning discs at 1987 Chicago Blues Festival. cial,"~ she admitted. "The songs that I it is like a little family." • Worcesterr MagUinE • hUMbul6, 1914 21.