Ana Popovic: Ana!

I confess that if someone had asked me last week to list the masters of blistering blues rock, the first (or second, or third) name to roll off of my tongue would not have been Ana Popovic. But after watching then-29-year-old Yugoslavian singer-songwriter-guitarist kick out the jams in an intimate January 2005 concert before an appreciative audience in Amsterdam, I'm--as the Monkees would say--a believer. Nominated for a W.C. Handy Blues Award for Best New Artist of the Year in 2003 (the only European ever accorded such an honor), the sensuous-voiced Popovic (whose influences include Stevie Ray Vaughan and Ronnie Earl) is backed by a tight bass-drum-keyboards trio on a rockin' 12-song set that combines solid covers (Howlin' Wolf's "Sittin' on Top of the World," Steely Dan's "Night By Night") with Popovic's own compositions (including the bottleneck blues-rock "Hometown," sultry "My Man," and moving "Jaco," a tribute to the tragic life of bass player extraordinaire Jaco Pastorius). Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo, DVD extras include three bonus songs, and an insightful 15-minute interview with Popovic. Not your father's pure blues by any means, Ana Popovic comfortably straddles the worlds of blues, rock, and jazz, drawing inspiration from each to create a sound that is uniquely her own. Recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)