Ana Popovic - Comfort To The Soul (2003)

The international appeal of the blues comes home with a fiery flourish on the breakout album by youthful Yugoslavian singer/guitarist Ana Popovic. Her 2001 debut disc Hush! effectively displayed her potential and Comfort to the Soul demonstrates she's well on the road to realizing much of it. Popovic, who relocated to the Netherlands in 1999, is much more than just the best Belgrade-born blues act. Although it's her rockish energy, expressed on tunes like the opening Melissa Etheridge-style "Don't Bear Down on Me," that will garner the majority of the attention, the most impressive aspect of her music is its diversity. She exhibits some Elmore James-inspired slide guitar on a couple of tracks (most notably on an innovative up-tempo take on Howlin' Wolf's "Sittin' On Top of the World"), shoots off more than a few hard-edged rocking blues solos elsewhere, and utilizes her affinity for jazz guitar in several creative contexts. Popovic's music, like her blues persona, is obviously still a work in progress but her second album provides as much pleasure in the present as it does promise for the future.--Michael Point