ANA POPOVIC "STILL MAKING HISTORY" Source: Rhythms Magazine | Australia Date: 12/2009 Writer: Al Hensley

Belgrade, Yugoslavia-born Ana Popovic broke through into the crowded international blues market with her 2007 US recording debut Still Making History.  The young musician is back to prove she is in it for the long term with this new title that aims to please followers of varied contemporary music styles from R&B and funk to bluesy rock’n’roll.  Popovic wraps her pliant vocal inflections around a dozen original songs that are also vehicles for her blazing guitar work. 

While she doesn’t confine her music to the standard blues form, you can feel its energy in guitar-driven rhythm & blues workouts such as the funk-infused “Nothing Personal”, “Wrong Woman”,  “Get Back Home To You”, and “Lives That Don’t Exist”, Steal Me Away”, brings out Popovic’s fiery slide flourishes, the smoldering “Putting Out The APB” and “Need Your Love” project her rock influences and the title cut, a couple of soulful ballads and “Blues For M” allow space for her jazzier stylings. 

To guarantee a winning formula, producers David Z and Mark Dearnley augmented Popovic’s regular touring rhythm section, percussionist Lenny Castro and three-part backing vocals with keyboardist Mike Finnegan, drummer Tony Braunagel, trumpeter Darrell Leonard and saxophonist Joe Sublett of the esteemed Phantom Blues Band.