Joanna Connor

Live On 11/11

M.C. Records

Joanna Connor was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Massachusetts. Connor is a guitarist who moved to Chicago in 1984, where she became part of the blues scene, sharing the stage with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, and A.C. Reed. Connor started her own band in 1987 and two years later released her debut recording, Believe It, on Blind Pig Records. She released three more studio recordings on that label, including the Jim Gaines–produced Fight and 1998’s Slidetime. Connor released The Joanna Connor Band, her first album for M.C. Records, in 2002. She didn’t release her next recording, for M.V. Records, until fourteen years later, when she released 2016’s critically acclaimed comeback Six String Stories. This new album is Connor’s sixteenth overall.

This live album features 10 sizzling tracks and captures Connor and her powerhouse band at the absolute peak of their powers, delivering an uncompromising dose of the fiery blues-rock and blistering slide guitar that has earned her millions of views online and the adoration of guitarists and blues fans worldwide. The album opens with the instrumental “Cissy Strut,” written by Ziggy Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr., and Art Neville, collectively known as the Meters. It was first performed in 1969.

“Shake Your Money Maker” was written and recorded by Elmore James in 1961. Connor sings, “I got a girl who lives up on the hill, talk she gonna love me, but I don’t believe she will. You got shake your moneymaker…shake it like you mean it, shake your moneymaker.” “The Sky Is Crying” is another song, written and first recorded in 1959, as Connor chimes, “The sky is crying, look at the tears roll down the street…”

On “Further On Up the Road,” written by Joe Medwick Veasey and Don Robey in 1957, Connor chants, “Further on up the road, someone’s gonna hurt you like you hurt me. Further on up the road, baby, just you wait and see.”

“You’re So Fine” was written and first recorded by Little Walter in 1953. Connor belts, “You’re so fine, I wanna say I, wanna love you all the time, you’re so fine pretty baby, let me love you all the time…Well I wanna give you all my money, buy you a diamond everything, till you be mine, baby, then we will make romance…you are a fine healthy thing, I wanna say I, I wanna love you all the time.”

“Are You Going with Me” was written by Dr. John and Doc Pomus and recorded by B.B. King. Connor cries out, “are you going my way…are you going with me baby, I’m in love, are you going my way.”

“I Just Wanna Make Love to You” was written by Willie Dixon in 1954 and first recorded by Muddy Waters. Connor moans, “I don’t want you to, to be my slave, I don’t want you to, to work all day. I don’t want you sad and blue, I just want to make love to you.”

“Magic Sam Boogie,” co-written by Magic Sam and Shakey Jake and also known as “Feelin’ Good (We’re Gonna Boogie),” was written and first recorded in 1963. Connor wails, “I feel so good now babe, I’m going to boogie until the break of day.”

“Can’t Find My Way Home” was written by Steve Winwood and first recorded by the supergroup Blind Faith in 1969. Connor howls, “Come down off your throne and leave your body alone, somebody must change, you are the reason I’ve been waiting so long, somebody holds the key. Well I’m near the end and I just ain’t got the time, oh and I’m wasted, and can’t find my way home.”

On the closer, “When the Levee Breaks,” written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929 and arranged by Connor, she croons, “If it keeps on rainin’ levee’s going to break…and the water gonna come, you’ll have no place to stay, well all last night I sat on the levee and moaned…thinking about my baby and happy home, if it keeps on raining, levee’s going to break.”

M.C. Records is incredibly proud to announce the release of Live on 11/11 on August 21st from Chicago’s own Joanna Connor, universally recognized as the Queen of Blues Rock Guitar. This historic release, recorded live at the Fallout Shelter in Norwood, Massachusetts, captures the raw, incendiary magic that has made Connor a global touring phenomenon, spanning a legendary 36-year career defined by explosive slide work and dynamic stage presence. Connor states, “The album brings to life what I believe needed to be heard, to witness what I have been honing and experiencing for decades. The unit here put in miles, both pleasant and tumultuous. The resulting alchemy was worth all of it.”

Richard Ludmerer

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