Search - Joanna Connor :: Joanna Connor Band

"Afrissippi" says it all...

Diamond Dave | CHICAGO, the Home of the Blues | 01/07/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

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Someone told me Connor was like the reigning queen of electric guitar blues. I hope not. I found this album fairly un-special in almost every way. To my ears, she is an average vocalist, the guitar licks sounded just ok, if not plentiful, and the songs are pedestrian at best. What really troubled me was how herky-jerky the tunes were over all. Nothing very catchy at all, especially her self penned tunes. The syncopation or beats are all sort off, off beat, almost jazz-like. That is never a good thing for me. I don't care who says that jazz and blues are cousins, in my library jazz has no place next to my BLUES.

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It says even more that the tunes I found most accessible were her covers. I very much enjoyed WAR's "Slipping into Darkness", it was funky and loose and fun. While I can't recall any one covering "White Lines" before, and one of the last places I expected to hear an old school rap song from the 80's is on a "Blues' CD, but she pulls off a decent instrumental take on that early rap classic. Both of those covers make sense because, like I said, she delivers most every tune in a clunky, chunky, push-and-pull style that suits both those songs. The most enjoyable track was an unexpected version of SAM CO0KE'S "Somebody Have Mercy". Naturally since I enjoy R&B, SOUL, GOSPEL & Blues, that song worked for me, and her voice was well suited for this track.

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The CD ends with a couple of down-home, rootsy tracks. I guess one is supposed to be a bridge between African homeland and present day Mississippi. Maybe. Sort of a spoken word thing that was pretty weak. She closes with the really tepid ode to praise in the morning. Yuck.

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I don't know, I recall hearing a Connor live CD that was pretty good and her most recent one sounded ok, but this one was hardly worth the time, but worth criticizing, since I wrote this.

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