ANA POPOVIC "STILL MAKING HISTORY" Source: Live Blues World Date: 06/2007 Writer: Sean

Belgrade-born Ana Popovic has released her first CD for Electro Groove Records, Still Making History, and it looks like the vocalist and guitarslinger is taking aim at the mainstream. And for that, you can’t blame her.
Her solid instrumental chops, vocals and original songwriting aside, she looks great in front of a camera. (I’ve said that before, and I hate to bring it up again, but it just can’t be denied) … She ain’t just a pretty face, however. The woman can play and sing, and on Still Making History you get the feeling that she’s found a musical comfort zone.

Popovic still retains pieces of the blues that influenced her and were more prominently displayed during her tenure with Ruf Records (a cover of the James Edward Pryor-penned “How’d You Learn to Shake It Like That?” being one example), but make no mistake about it: This is a rock record, evidenced by tunes like the driving “Hold On” and “Hungry.” In the process, Ana takes some worthwhile stylistic side trips on songs like the reggae-tinged “Between Our Worlds,” the jazzy “Doubt Everyone But Me,” or the slow intensity of the title track, where she displays some tasteful guitar lines alongside a growing penchant for lyricism.

Popovic learned guitar at the age of 15, a journey that began with her father. “My father has all the great records,” she said in a 2005 interview. “He is one of the best deejays I know — not professionally, but just at home. I grew up on rock music and blues. This is the only thing we ever listened to. We’d dance to Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson songs. Stevie Ray [Vaughan], Buddy Guy and Albert King — those were the first licks I played on my guitar because that was really the only music we had at home. I didn’t look for anything else.”