Belgrade Yugoslavia may not be the first place you think of when it comes to blues music. Also, a sexy 26 year old woman may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re picturing a guitar-slinging blues musician. However, if you put the two together you get the newest sensation in the world of blues music and that is Ana Popovic. With two new releases on the Ruf Record label, 2001’s “Hush,” and this year’s “Comfort To The Soul,” Ana is simultaneously catching fire both here in the states and throughout Europe. This past spring she was nominated by the prestigious Blues Foundation for a “Best New Artist W.C. Handy Award.” Now she is touring America with members of the Michael Hill’s Blues Mob. She’ll be making her first appearances in Connecticut with shows at Burke’s Tavern in Niantic on November 20th and Black Eyed Sally’s in Hartford on November 21st.

Ana’s rapid rise to prominence really comes as no surprise when you look at the family she was born into. “My dad has been playing the blues his whole life,” said Ana. “He had this great record collection and he’d have jam sessions at the house every week.” Eventually Ana took to the guitar and by the age of 19 she was fronting her own band. Soon after Ana and her band were playing gigs all over Europe and even appearing regularly on Yugoslavian TV. By 1999 she relocated in Amsterdam to study jazz guitar at the Conservatory of Music. She quickly became a fixture on the Dutch blues scene.

Ana’s break came when she went to see blues great and Ruf Records recording artist Bernard Allison at a club in Germany. “Yeah Bernard was the one who helped me get the record deal, I would never have called Ruf Records myself,” said Ana. “I met Bernard at one of his concerts and he heard that I played guitar and he invited me up on stage and we were going crazy and wild on slide. And even though are styles are so different we meshed really well. He inspires me as a songwriter as well as a singer and guitar player. I think he’s one of the best young people in blues and I really owe him so much for everything that’s happened in my career.”

The first recording Ana did with Ruf Records was one track on a compilation Jimi Hendrix tribute CD called “Blue Haze.” Soon after, she was on her way to Memphis Tennessee to record the “Hush” CD. There is a wide array of musicians who appear on “Hush” but the three who anchored it are the veteran session musicians Steve Potts on drums, Dave Smith on bass, and Jack Holder on rhythm guitar. “Hush” was produced by the now legendary Jim Gaines. “I like what I get in Memphis compared to Europe,” said Ana when discussing this recording. “We get this groovy thing happening that’s a little slower and a little more laid back and I love that.” When “Comfort To The Soul” was ready to be recorded Ana returned to Memphis with the same core of musicians and with Jim Gaines. However, there was one difference this time. Gaines did indeed produced half the tracks, but the rest of the CD, those songs which moved beyond the boundaries of the blues, were produced by David Z. “Our idea was to do a follow up to ‘Hush’ definitely and maybe go a step further,” said Ana. “That’s why we called Jim in again. I think Jim is an excellent producer and he’s the man for guitar sounds, which was proven again on the second record. I think the guitar sound that he made are excellent and exactly what I like to hear. But we were getting to the point where we didn’t agree about the song selection and I had this idea of recording Steely Dan and my instrumental ‘Navajo Moon’ and my song ‘Jaco’ which were both hits songs at my concerts. So I literally had to record them. I could’ve made a compromise and I do from time to time but not this time. So we agreed to work on the songs that we both agreed on. In the meantime David Z. heard a demo of the recordings and he loved them. David was open to new ideas and I think the combination worked perfectly because I loved that Jim had his part there, I loved the guitar sounds he did and that real Memphis thing that happened there. But then on the other hand I loved the variety I got with David producing the other songs.”

Those other songs, as Ana called them, are the highlights of the “Comfort To The Soul” CD. “Navajo Moon” is a lush instrumental that blurs the boundaries between blues and jazz. “Ronnie Earl was the guy who turned me on to jazz especially with his song ‘Akos,’ said Ana. “It’s such a cool sound and so on the edge. I studied jazz for a couple of years just so I could come up with those kind of licks and those kind of themes myself rather than just copying someone else’s licks like Ronnie Earl or T-Bone Walker. Also I wanted to get outside the blues scale. Later on I started getting into players like John Scofield and Kevin Eubanks who opened me up to new sounds different from the Fender sound, you know, the Stratocaster/ Telecaster thing.”

The Steely Dan song that Ana covers is “Night By Night.” “Well I don’t like to cover songs that are hits like a Blues Brother song for example,” said Ana when asked what drew her to Steely Dan. “And ‘Night By Night’ was one of those songs that was really bluesy to me. And I love Steely Dan as a band because they’re on the edge of being over produced but still cool. They’ve managed to keep their own identity for such an incredibly long time. There are many artists who have their bluesy side and many people don’t notice that, but when I listen to Steely Dan I hear the blues stuff and ‘Night By Night’ is definitely one of them. So if I want to do something that is a little bit out of the 12 bar and 1-4-5 progression then why not ‘Night By Night’? It’s a very inspiring song, it’s very groovy and I love the lyrics.”

The track that closes out the disc is a very poetic and breezy number called “Jaco.” “The song happened in one day,” said Ana. “The first idea of music and the lyrics happened after I had read this book about Jaco Pastorius and was touched by the story of his life of course.”

Ana now joins a growing fraternity of female blues guitarists. Bonnie Raitt still sets the standard but over the past years several other diverse and talented artists such as Susan Tedeschi, Debbie Davies, Sue Foley, Joanna Connor, Deborah Coleman, and Kris Wiley have added so much to the genre.

“I’ve seen Deborah Coleman live and Bonnie of course,” said Ana when asked about some of the other women of blues. “I’ve heard all their records and I think what they’re doing is very good. They’re all different in their styles and I think that’s great. The whole female approach is different than the males. With a woman you have more troubles with just confronting your audience and saying ‘look this is who I am, I going to play with balls and this is it like it or not.’ I think women need to have this courage. This is how I try to be. I like to be totally focused on what’s happening on stage and trying to create an energy with my band. I like to just go out there and kick ass.”

Clearly Ana Popovic is someone to keep an eye on in the coming years. Besides her extraordinary talent both as a singer/songwriter and lead guitarist, she is also young, beautiful, energetic, and charismatic.

On the first song of her new CD Ana sings “I’m a woman, still got some time to go. Don’t bear down on me. I’m here to steal the show.”

Indeed.