Tyler McDaniel
Audio By Carbonatix
Calling all Front Range blues fans! Herman’s Hideaway will be a “Blues Circus” on Saturday, March 19, as a supergroup of nine Colorado musicians – including members of the Subdudes – co-headlines a full night of live blues with a talent-packed lineup that includes the nationally acclaimed Joanna Connor Band from Chicago.
Tickets are available online in advance while they last, and a limited number of reserved tables for four are also available. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the show is open to ages 21 and up.
The local headliner for the event will be a nine-member “supergroup” of Colorado blues musicians dubbed “Blues Circus”: Award-winning blues musicians and International Blues Challenge alums Lionel Young, Erica Brown, Merrian “M.J.” Johnson and Diana Castro; pianist John Magnie and drummer Steve Amedee of the world-famous Subdudes; acclaimed upright bassist Eric Thorin; Greta Cornett on trumpet; and Phuong Nguyen on saxophone. Blues Circus will perform last, beginning at 10 p.m.
Immediately prior to Blues Circus, the Joanna Connor Band will take the stage around 8:15 p.m. Considered the “Queen of Slide Guitar” in blues-music circles, Connor is a pillar of the Chicago blues scene, where she began studying under the masters of the blues after moving to the Windy City in the mid-1980s. She soon joined the house band at Buddy Guy’s Checkerboard Lounge, where she got to perform with Guy, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Sammy Lawhorn, Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin, Magic Slim, Son Seals, Lonnie Brooks and Koko Taylor.
More recently – in between worldwide tours and residencies at the House of Blues and Kingston Mines – Connor and her band have been making a bit of a multimedia splash.
In 2014, a video of the Joanna Connor Band performing “Walkin Blues” on the deck of a small Massachusetts BBQ restaurant went viral. Around 9 million views later, guitarist Joe Bonamassa contacted her and offered to produce her next album, which he ended up playing on, too. The resulting project, 4801 South Indiana, released in February 2021, earned high praise from blues publications and critics around the world.
“Blazing and screaming slide guitar with similarly delivered vocals on songs that drip with old-school authenticity,” Guitarist magazine said about the new album. Blues Matter magazine writes: “Joanna’s vocals are stunning. All ten tracks are reinterpreted with edginess, class and passion.”
Hollywood has also taken notice of Connor’s slide-guitar chops and soulful, gritty vocals: The band is featured in the new Ben Affleck film Deep Water, which debuts the day before Connor’s show in Denver.
With Guitar World writing that Connor “might be the best – or most original – blues-based slide guitar player you’re likely to come across today. Or tomorrow,” it’s easy to understand why Connor had plenty of interest during the pandemic from students wanting her to teach them guitar virtually while her touring was halted.
“I had almost 35 students in the first year of the pandemic,” Connor says. “A lot of people wanted to learn how to play slide guitar. It was challenging and it was fun, and I got to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
One of those students was Denver singer-songwriter Michelle Castillo. A pianist and violin player since childhood, Castillo “messed around” with acoustic guitar for years, but in 2017 she began to get serious about learning blues guitar. (Castillo also plays drums in the Denver-based Steve Son Band.)
“I was first turned on to Joanna Connor about five years ago, when I came across a YouTube video of her shredding a guitar,” Castillo says. “I was blown away, and immediately became an admirer as I dug through many YouTube videos. I had never seen a woman play with such finesse and power.”
Castillo says that during her lessons with Connor, they studied blues progressions and solo ideas, dissected songs and worked on slide technique. “Slide playing is such a feel thing; it’s really cool and sensual,” Castillo says. “I have a long way to go, but it’s coming along. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to study with this legend, Chicago’s Queen of Slide Guitar!”
Connor says that when she was booked to perform in Denver, she immediately contacted Castillo to invite her to be part of the show. Castillo and her frequent music partner, roots rocker Justin Bank, and friends will open the evening with a set beginning at 6:30 p.m.
“When I first started playing guitar in the blues, there were no other women,” Connor explains. “It was very challenging. I still get this: A lot of men downplay your ability or they’re threatened by you. But on the other hand, there are thousands of great guitar players out there nowadays, and if you’re a woman and you can play pretty well, it can be easier to stand out. I don’t mind the extra scrutiny, as a woman playing the blues – it keeps me kind of fierce!”
The third female-fronted act on Saturday’s lineup is Eef & the Blues Express, a five-piece band that’s a multiple Colorado Music Awards winner and was a 2017 semi-finalist at the International Blues Challenge. Eef’s set is expected to begin around 7:15 p.m.
Connor notes that the bill for Saturday features three female guitar players – “a really nice change from the way things used to be.”
Blues Circus, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 19, Herman’s Hideaway, 1578 South Broadway; tickets are $23-$168. For more information, visit the event page on Facebook or hermanshideaway.com.