Music / blues

Rise


Reviews (4)


Blues rock review

d. 6. Nov. 2019

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Steven Ovadia

d. 6. Nov. 2019

"In many ways, Rise surpasses the hype of the YouTube performances, in that the album provides an opportunity to get to know Connor as a complete artist, and not just as a stunningly talented guitar player. Rise has plenty of jaw-dropping guitar work, but it's framed around songs, with the songs contextualized within the album, meaning everything feels connected, and it's not a drive-by YouTube adrenaline rush ... Rise is an amazing album with some of the best guitar playing you'll hear this year. Connor's also a strong songwriter and singer, so the album has depth. If there's one knock on the album, it's that she leans a little hard on her fretboard prowess, featuring four instrumentals".


Glide Magazine

d. 5. Nov. 2019

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Doug Collette

d. 5. Nov. 2019

"While she built her reputation with incendiary slide playing, this album, more than any of hers, proves she is no one-trick pony, now embracing a wider array of styles ... It may not seem cohesive but focus on her amazingly versatile guitar that shows both her trademark string-bending, mind-blowing fury, as well as a sensitive side and deft jazz-like touch. The legions of blues purists that have come to adore her slide playing and Chicago blues style may be taken aback but Connor more than "rises" to these new challenges".


DownBeat

2020 February

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Frank-John Hadley

2020 February

"Spurred by a crisp, eclectic new band, Connor fires up her creative muse and tugs at the blues' boundaries on her first album in three years. Her minatory, scalding slide guitar figures are in plentiful supply on carnal blues-rock like "Earthshaker." Even more interesting are her forays into blues-connected hip-hop (...), funk (...) and jazz (...). The standard "Since I Fell For You, "though, shows her limitations as a singer".


Living blues

2019 December

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Melanie Young

2019 December

"She's (...) making some of the best music of her career. On her latest offering, Rise, she displays plenty of her trademark guitar pyrotechnics while pushing into even broader musical territory ... An artist fully in possession of her considerable powers, Joanna Connor's star should only continue to Rise".