Ana Popovic just may surprise you

SARANAC LAKE - On the cover of her latest album, "Still Making History," Ana Popovic stands seductively dressed in white with her blonde hair fanned out. She's holding a guitar, but the pink font surrounding her and the attractive face might make you skeptical.

"Is this a guitarist or a pop star?" I asked myself before throwing in the disc, and - as it turned out - I got a little of both.
Popovic certainly can play, which you find out in a hurry. And she can sing and write, as well. Guitar One Magazine was correct in its assertion that, "Popovic is much more than a pretty face with a guitar."

There's certainly a little pop sprinkled in her voice and lyrics, but the music that informs it doles out plenty of rock, jazz and soul, too.

I listened to "Still Making History" while I made dinner. Before I knew it, I was halfway through the album, and I'm the type of person who will give up on a disc I don't like pretty quickly.

I have to say I thought that's how things would go with "Still Making History," but I was pleasantly surprised by her guitar work in most instances, and her voice doesn't carry much of a hint of her Yugoslavian upbringing in terms of accent.
And though I was surprised, looking at her history, I probably shouldn't have been. Her father was a bass and guitar player, and her childhood days were most often filled with late-night jam sessions and musicians filing in and out of the home, so it's only natural to expect her to pick up an instrument.

In her early 20s, she formed her first band and began regularly touring around Europe making a name for herself. Shortly thereafter, she left her homeland and settled in the Netherlands to study music.
That displacement, she said in a press release, informs much of the music and lyrics in "Still Making History." And it finds a welcome home in American roots, R&B and rock.

However, the stand out track on the album, "Doubt Everyone but Me," is pretty much a straight-up jazz number.
Popovic, along with James Pace on the Hammond B-3 organ, Ronald Jonker on the bass and Dion Murdock on drums, will take the Waterhole Upstairs Music Lounge stage at 9:30 p.m. Friday, July 18. Doors for the show open at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $20 in advance and $25 at the door.