Many
blues
-oriented and
-friendly artists will go their entire careers without ever providing a live album, which is regrettable because live performances are such an important part of the
experience.
Ana Popovic
, thankfully, isn't one of them. This 67-minute CD is the Yugoslavian singer/guitarist's third album for
Ruf Records
, and it is also her first live album. Recorded at an Amsterdam, Holland, show on January 30, 2005 (when
Popovic
was 28), the disc paints a consistently exciting picture of her talents as a live performer.
is as captivating on the aggressive, confident strut of
"My Man"
and
Howlin' Wolf
's
"Sittin' on Top of the World"
as she is on the moody, dusky jazziness of
"Won't Let You Down"
and the instrumental
"Navajo Moon"
(which was written in memory of the late
Stevie Ray Vaughan
, one of her major influences). Although very
-friendly,
Ana! Live in Amsterdam
isn't strictly a document of a
show -- rather, it is a document of a show in which the
meet
rock
,
soul
funk
, and
jazz
. An interesting point: although
grew up in the former Yugoslavia and is performing for a Dutch audience on this album, all of her introductions to the songs are in English -- the language that remains a common denominator for
performers and
fans all over the world. These days,
hip-hop
are being performed in a variety of languages other than English, but English remains the official language of the
-- even if the performer is as much of a non-purist as
, whose excellent
makes it clear that she did the right thing by not waiting until she was 40 or 50 to provide a live album. ~ Alex Henderson