Ana Popovic is back from a barnstorming tour of The States.
3SongsBonn caught her at the Lindenbrauerei in Unna but there will be plenty of opportunity to catch her before years end – including a show at Bonn Harmonie on 3 December.
The only thing I knew about Unna was that one of my sporting heroes, the cycle-sprint legend Eric Zabel, is a resident. Truth to tell Zabel could have been in the audience – along with Elvis and Lord Lucan, it was so crowded no-one would have noticed.
The band were gradually adjusting to the warm climate over here after some chilly dates in the USA but if the temperature was warm the music was sizzling. Set opener ‘Slideshow’ from the current ‘Unconditional’ CD is the perfect opener to test the sound and get the fingers moving. The rest of the evening was a blur of music, much of it from the latest CD but with the obligatory Popovic classic included – no show would be complete without Ana’s nod to the legendary Stevie Ray ‘Navajo Moon’ of course but aside from hot guitar licks there’s also plenty of classic Blues in the show these days too: numbers like Snooky Priors ‘How’d you learn to shake it’, Big Mama Thornton’s ‘You don’t move me’, and Koko Taylor ‘Voodoo Woman’ were all gritty and rocking – Ana’s vocals keep getting better and better. There’s even a new Popovic ‘classic’ to be heard in the shape of ‘Mercy Walton’s ‘One Room Country Shack’ which, as Ana proudly announces she recently played onstage with Buddy Guy (with no lesser a Blues God than BB King looking on).
Since Unna is a little out of the normal 3SongsBonn catchment area for reporting I’ll stop there. If you want to see and hear more (and believe me you DO!) here are the places to be –
Beauty and the Blues - Ana Popovic on Tour
04/11 @ Lindenbrauerei, Unna, Germany
05/11 @ Ducsaal, Freudenburg, Germany
11/11 @ Meisenfrei, Bremen, Germany
12/11@ Riders Café, Lubeck, Germany
18/11@ Het Arsenaaltheater, Vlissingen, The Netherlands
19/11@ Schwarzer Adler, Rheinberg, Germany
21/11@ Banana Peel, Ruiselede, Belgium
24/11@ Dieselstrasse, Esslingen, Germany
25/11@ Rossmuhle, Burgbernheim, Germany
03/12 @Harmonie, Bonn Germany