Shaking Up Tradition: Ana Popovic Brings New Hues to Blues

GROWING UP IN SERBIA, Ana Popovic had one interest: her dad's guitar. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to touch it.

"It was forbidden for me when I was a kid to play with it," explains Popovic by phone from her Amsterdam home. "That somehow built up a wish to be able to know how to use it."

When Daddy Popovic relented, young Ana showed amazing acumen on the instrument — such acumen that a decade or so later, she's become a respected underground guitar sensation. Since releasing her debut CD with her Serbian band, Hush, a decade ago, Popovic has put out a quartet of innovative albums that have pushed the boundaries of the blues music she loved as a kid.

"It was all we had in the house," she explains. "My dad had only American blues records. I grew up listening to Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Booker White and Snooky Pryor."

Ironically, Popovic didn't take her music career seriously at first, trying her hand at graphic design. But her passion for playing prompted her to enroll at Utrecht's Conservatory in Holland. It was there she developed her multi-hued style.
On her newest CD, "Still Making History," her worldly mastery recalls Carlos Santana. It's music drawn from tradition, but not tied to it. The fact that Popovic also sings and composes doesn't hurt, either.

Her range — and sexy stage clothes — makes blues purists wince, but they're missing the point. She's not out to be a musical Xerox machine.

"When I went on to the conservatory, I discovered there are so many more sounds out there other than just what blues people are using," she explains. "I try to make my own sound and my own style."

If she lived in the States and toured exclusively here, it would be easy to imagine Popovic enjoying the popularity of Susan Tedeschi. But she says she prefers doing the international thing.

"I've been really dedicating my time to spreading my name as wide as possible, instead of choosing one country and going for the whole thing there," she says.