In addition to the interview, Ana Popovic was also featured on Guitar World's "Lick of the Day" where she shares her passion for the blues tradition and demonstrates one of the many memorable licks from her latest album 'Unconditional'.
Over the past six years, the Blues Caravan has toured successfully in the UK, USA and throughout continental Europe. This unique triple bill revue has helped introduce bright new stars such as Ana Popovic and Joanne Shaw Taylor to an international audience. Following in their footsteps on the 2011 tour is a trio of dynamic, up-and-coming blues talents: Dani Wilde, Cassie Taylor and Samantha Fish.
None other than Mike Zito produced the album. Multiple Blues Award Winner in Memphis 2010. On the album are ten own songs, like the earthshaking Get Back ("a real Killer" - Daniel Böhm, ROCKS Magazine 01/2011) or the laid-back Wait A Minute, and two covers of two really great songs. Bitch from the Rolling Stones ( therefore, the girls produced also a video - see www.bluescaravan.com and Jet Airliner, well-known by the Steve Miller Band.
Hailing from Brighton, England, Dani Wilde sings the blues with the old-school fervor of Aretha Franklin, but also takes a cue from contemporaries like Duffy and Joss Stone. The singer/songwriter/guitarist has just released her second album, Shine, a collaboration with renowned producer Mike Vernon (Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac). She has shared stages with luminaries like Robben Ford, Candye Kane and Koko Taylor. Says Paul Jones of BBC Radio 2: "Dani Wilde's voice is astounding, with a unique raw passion and energy. She sings with more conviction and passion than old legends from the Mississippi Delta."
At the tender age of 21, Samantha Fish is already a hot property on the live music scene in and around her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. She discovered the blues almost by accident as a teenager, but it has since become her singular mission in life. Her high-heeled, rock-edged performances have won her a loyal local following and carried her to venues like Rosa's Lounge in Chicago, where she opened eyes during the 2010 Chicago Blues Festival. 2011 seems destined to be her breakout year.
Proud to call herself the "Daughter of a Bluesman," multi-instrumentalist Cassie Taylor has appeared on eight critically-acclaimed albums by her father, Otis Taylor, and accompanied him on tours all over the world. She was also a featured vocalist on Gary Moore's 2008 release Bad For You Baby. Still just in her early 20s, Cassie has been hailed for her commanding stage presence and "heavenly" voice (Boston Globe). Her music ranges from heart-wrenching ballads to hard-driving blues. Like her father, Taylor doesn't shy from topical subject matter, nor shrink from breaching musical boundaries.
This trio of young, passionate performers is backed by a top-flight band of road-tested professionals for more than two hours of live blues excellence.
Tedeschi began singing when she was four and was active in local choir and theater in Norwell, a southern suburb of Boston. She began singing at 13 with local bands and continued her music studies at Berklee, honing her guitar skills and also joining the Reverence Gospel Ensemble. She started the first incarnation of her blues band upon graduating in 1991, with vocalist/guitarist Adrienne Hayes, a fellow blues enthusiast whom she met at the House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin, and Boston-area singer Toni Lynn Washington were Tedeschi's most important influences; in starting her band, in fact, she used Washington's backing band and hustled up gigs on nights when Washington and her band were not already booked. Since they began performing around Boston's fertile blues scene, Tedeschi and her band developed into a tightly knit, road-ready group, and have played several major blues festivals. Guitarist Sean Costello has since replaced original guitarist and co-vocalist Hayes, who left the group to pursue her own musical interests.
Misstallica is a member of a growing array of all-girl metal tribute acts that routinely sell out rock clubs in New York and beyond, establishing acumen (and chops) in a business that often favors men.
When the Misstallica women finally reassumed their instruments at the bowling alley that Friday, the crowd mostly grown men in black T-shirts proclaiming allegiance to Motörhead, the Misfits, Tool was borderline ecstatic. One fan, wearing jean shorts and a sleeveless, tucked-in Beavis and Butt-Head top, was so possessed by the squall that his body appeared to be operating independently of his mind. A few feet away the vocalist and guitarist Gina Gleason, 19, tall and sinewy in black skinny jeans and flat boots, ripped into “The Four Horsemen,” from Metallica’s 1983 album, “Kill ’Em All.” Her brown hair was flailing; her teeth were bared.Ms. Gleason, a virtuosic guitarist and untiring vocalist, has mastered the frenzied, muscular gnashing of the Metallica front man, James Hetfield, and the band’s second set, like the first, was a spectacular thing to behold: along with the drummer, Kaleen Reading, 19; the guitarist Lauren Tsipori, 16; and Ms. Tarnoff, 26, Misstallica played harder, faster and better than the words “tribute band” might imply.
Before the show, the band mates posed for photographs in their dressing room, crowding onto an orange loveseat. A lone can of aerosol hairspray sat in front of a mirror; a single pair of women’s underwear hung limply from a string of Christmas lights. The scene recalled the showy heyday of ’80s metal a subculture largely untouched by feminism, in which women were often seen as hangers-on, writhing on the hoods of cars or perched on their boyfriends’ shoulders. For Misstallica “groupie” means something different: intimidated, deferential and male.
All-female tribute bands are often curiously good at appropriating a genre long considered misogynistic. Metal’s reputation as a vehicle for male aggression is partly true, but there’s also an undeniable femininity to its archetypal presentation (long flowing hair, tight pants) and, in many cases, to the music itself.
In a 2005 article in Spin, Chuck Klosterman suggested that Lez Zeppelin — an all-girl Led Zeppelin tribute, which performs on Saturday at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, on Long Island — might be “the most powerful all-female band in rock history.” Mr. Klosterman’s sentiments aren’t particularly hyperbolic. Lez Zeppelin, from New York, has somehow harnessed the energy, a kind of magical looseness, that helped catapult Led Zeppelin into the rock ’n’ roll canon.
The Lez Zeppelin band, from left, Megan Thomas, Shannon Conley, Leesa Harringtoh-Squyres and Steph Paynes in Fairfax, Va., last June.
Weapon of Choice: The Gibson SG
Grammy nominated guitarist, Ruyter Suys of the Southern hard rock band Nashville Pussy has officially joined Dick Delicious and the Tasty Testicles. “Ruyter Suys is now a full member of Dick Delicious and the Tasty Testicles. It is official, she is a Tasty Testicle now. I guess she is more of a Palatable Pussy than a Tasty Testicle though” stated Dick Delicious frontman Richard Delicious.
Dick Delicious and the Tasty Testicles has just finished recording its’ latest opus “A Vulgar Display of Obscurity”. The album features guest appearances by Brent Hinds, Troy Sanders and Bill Killiher from Mastodon and Kevin Sharp from Brutal Truth.
Career Highpoint: The point of every live Nashville Pussy gig when lead singer Blaine Cartwright pulls Ruyter's head back - while she's on her knees mind you - and forces a bottle of beer down her throat as she proceeds to guzzle its entire barley-based contents.
Fun Fact: She claims that the reason why she plays guitar is because of Courtney Love - not because Love's her idol, but for the opposite reason. "Courtney gives women a bad name in rock 'n roll and uses her guitar as a necklace not as an instrument." She follows that statement up with this: "Being a woman in a band can be hard sometimes because people will never
look at me for my musicianship, they'll always look at the boobs." Did I mention she only plays gigs in lace bras and leather pants and the leather pants usually come off mid-set? Contradictions are incredibly sexy.
In 2005, she formed the country music duo The Wreckers with friend and fellow musician Jessica Harp, and produced the Grammy-nominated single "Leave the Pieces". However, The Wreckers disbanded in 2007 to pursue their respective solo careers. She has had several commercially successful songs, although her most notable achievement is the Grammy-winning song "The Game of Love", in collaboration with Santana.
Beginning to sing at the age of three, Branch enrolled in voice lessons at Northern Arizona University when she was eight, and received her first guitar for her fourteenth birthday. After teaching herself chords, she composed her first song "Fallen" within a week of receiving her guitar. She initially attended Sedona Red Rock High School, but finished the last two years of her high school education through home schooling so that she could focus on her music career.
http://www.michellebranch.com/
http://www.myspace.com/michellebranch
Ana Popovic’s first CD, titled 'HUSH' was released in 2000. In February 2003, she released her second album 'Comfort To The Soul', followed by the live CD/DVD titled 'ANA! Live in Amsterdam'.
In her brief career, she’s already enjoyed a number major honors. Among the highlights:
She and her band won the prestigious jazz award ‘Jazz a Juan-Revelation 2004’ in Juan Le Pins, France. The award shows recognition of Ana’s abilities in the jazz genre - a strong influence on her music.
During the ‘Rhythm & Blues Fest’ in Peer, Belgium, Ana is invited on stage by ‘The King of Soul’, Solomon Burke, who immediately invites her to join him as a special guest for the rest of his tour.
Ana was chosen to be part of the European ‘Jimi Hendrix Tribute tour’ in 2002. Ana also joins various artists Eric Burdon, Taj Mahal and Buddy Miles on a Jimi Hendrix tribute CD: ‘Blue Haze’.
Upon forming her first band, Hush, she immediately began making waves in her home country, and was performing a hundred shows annually and making regular appearances on Yugoslavian television.
Initially embraced by the blues music community, Ana is the first European ever nominated for ‘Best New Blues Artist’ at the W.C. Handy Award Show in Memphis, Tennessee (2003). She was also nominated for 'Best Blues Album' at the Jammie Awards in New York City, a three way nominee for 'Best Vocalist', 'Best Guitarist' and 'Best Album' at the French Blues Awards (2002).
In 2007, Ana Popovic set her sights on the U.S. and signed her first American record deal with the Los Angeles based Delta Groove Music. The subsidiary label Eclecto Groove Records was then formed and created to support Ana’s diverse and eclectic approach to music. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer John Porter and David Z., “Still Making History" signified Ana’s first official entry into the U.S. market and it was a smashing success. The album spent a total of 19 weeks on the Billboard blues chart and hit its peak position at #3!
Now after tirelessly touring the U.S. and Europe for the past two years Ana returns with her follow up effort "Blind For Love," produced by Mark Dearnley (AC/DC, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney). Joined by members of her regular touring band - Ronald Jonker (bass) and Andrew "Blaze" Thomas (drums), plus special guests Tony Braunagel (drums) and Mike Finnigan (Hammond B-3) from the Phantom Blues Band, Ana offers up a little something here for everyone including blues, rock, jazz, funk and gospel.
Ana demonstrates once again that she possesses the vision to forge ahead with her own uniquely distinctive style and continues to evolve as a deeply personal and gifted songwriter, carrying on the tradition of her father, her roots, and her true love of the music she was destined to play.
When Lavigne was five years old, the family moved to Napanee, Ontario, a town with an approximate population of 5,000. Although she struggled with paying attention in school, sometimes kicked out of class for misbehaving, her parents were supportive of her singing. Her father bought her a microphone, a drum kit, a keyboard, several guitars, and converted their basement into a studio. When Lavigne was 14, her parents would take her to karaoke sessions. Lavigne also performed at country fairs, singing songs by Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain. She also began writing her own songs. Her first song was called "Can't Stop Thinking About You", about a teenage crush, which she described as "cheesy cute".
http://www.avrillavigne.com/
http://www.myspace.com/avrillavigne
She learned to play the acoustic guitar at six at the encouragement of her father, started electric when she was eleven and left her school, Cabra Dominican College, due to bullying and a lack of support from her peers, enrolling at the prestigious Mercedes College. At the age of 15, she turned her focus on writing songs and so began her professional career. She has been playing in bands since the age of 14 in England and in France, her first stage show for Steve Vai at age 15. Orianthi met and jammed with Carlos Santana when she was 18. He invited Orianthi to jam up and jam with him at soundcheck then later jammed if she would jam with him on stage that night to jam at his Adelaide concert, Jam Memorial Drive on 30 March 2003 jam.
http://www.orianthi.com/
