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Ana Popović—Power—ArtisteXclusive Records

Ana Popović (Serbian Cyrillic: Ана Поповић, born May 13, 1976)
hails from Serbia but currently resides in the United States.

This excellent album was formed when at the latter end of 2020,
Ana was diagnosed with breast cancer and after multiple
treatments, started to put her life together. This album is one of
the results (she is on tour in the UK this month).

When I first listened to this, I was struck by the sensational bass
work and perhaps not surprised to find that the bass playing
throughout the album is that of Ana’s bass player and musical director, Buthel, who , with the
exception of the opener, ‘Rise Up’, co-wrote all the remaining ten tracks AND produced the
album.

As mentioned, the only exception to the Popović and Buthel credits for the songs, is the opener
is the ‘in-your-face’ presentation ‘Rise Up’, a Kenny Wayne Shepherd song, which here is here
given an overt anthemic treatment “Don't turn a blind eye to injustice and the people that need
our love and support. Support inclusiveness and unity. That's what this song is all about", says
Ana.

‘Queen of the Pack’ is a song about Ana’s role fronting the band, “[C]rack your whip, you're the
Queen of the pack, lick your wounds and never look back, get your team back on track.” A stunner.

‘Luv'n Touch’ with some tasty acoustic guitar by Ana is a love ballad. Delightful.

Recorded with an outstanding band of skilled musicians from Detroit, Dallas and New Orleans,
(like the powerhouse drummer Chris Coleman (Beck, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder)), the album
was then superbly mixed and mastered by multi-talented Grammy Award and Dove Award-
winning producer Jeremy Bishop Hicks.

This one is an award winner too IMHO. Excellent!

Ian K McKenze

James Oliver—Less Is More—Independent

James, not to be confused with Jamie Oliver, who is a celebrity
chef, is an outstanding guitar player from Wales, who celebrates
the roots of rock ‘n’ roll which are, of course, firmly entwined
with the roots of the blues.

There are deep roots too, to rock ’n’ roll in Wales which can cite
the likes of Dave Edmunds, Geraint Watkins, Deke Leonard, Micky
Gee, Graham Williams as serving the cause of rock.

I first heard James with his band Glas (Welsh for blue) and I
thought it was great. This stuff is outstanding: A selection of faves,
ranging from Merle Travis’ ‘Cannonball Rag’ through Arthur Smith's ‘Guitar Boogie’ and the
wonderful ‘Sleep Walk"—an instrumental by Santo & Johnny Farina—to Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’
and ‘Apache’ first recorded by Bert Weedon (not The Shads: check it out!). Not a duff track here.
For an afternoon of foot-tapping get this one and wallow in memories (if you are old enough!).

Ian K McKenzie