The Blues Society of Omaha and The Waiting Room present the 2023 BMA Award Nominee for Instrumentalist-Guitar! $15 advance tickets available at etix.com. $20 DOS.

Since releasing the aptly titled Believe It! for Blind Pig in 1989, Chicago-based guitarist and singer/songwriter Joanna Connor has revealed herself as a virtuoso stylist in modern electric blues, R&B, and blues-rock. Her take-no-prisoners playing style joins fiery single-string runs to dazzling, rough-and-ready slide guitar pyrotechnics in an approach at once incendiary and deeply soulful. Connor is also an accomplished vocalist and songwriter.

In 2020, Connor signed to Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive (KTBA) label. With guitarists Bonamassa and Josh Smith co-producing, Connor entered the Ocean’s Way Studio in Nashville as part of a three-guitar front line with an all-star cast of players who also included keyboardist Reese Wynans and bassist Calvin Turner, and a horn section. The goal was to cut a personal homage to the school of Chicago blues that nurtured her. To that end, she titled the set 4801 South Indiana Avenue — the address of legendary blues club Theresa’s Lounge that existed from 1951 to 1987 on the City’s South Side and was home to the city’s founding blues fathers. The set was announced in January with the issue of the single and video “I Feel So Good.” The ten-song full-length was released in February of 2021. The album debuted at number one on the blues charts.