By Anita Stewart
Managing Editor (Retired)
Album: “Live on 11/11″ by Joanna Connor
Release Date: August 21, 2026
Chicago’s Queen of Blues-Rock Guitar Is Finally Releasing Her First Live Album
For more than three decades, Joanna Connor has been one of Chicago’s most electrifying blues performers. Known for her fearless slide guitar work, powerhouse vocals, and marathon live performances, Connor has earned a reputation as one of the finest blues-rock guitarists of her generation. While many fans discovered her through viral videos showcasing her blistering solos, those who have seen her in clubs know that her live performances are where her reputation was truly built. She delivers blistering compositions of her own and technically perfect covers of the music written by the greats that have gone before her; the artists that have inspired her.
Now, after a remarkable career spanning more than 35 years, Connor is finally releasing her first official live album, Live On 11/11, scheduled to drop on August 21, 2026. The record was captured at The Fallout Shelter venue in Norwood, Massachusetts, and showcases the energy, spontaneity, and raw musicianship that have made her concerts legendary.
My faves on this recording are “Magic Sam Boogie” and a blistering covers of “I Can’t Find My Way Home” written by Stevie Winwood and performed by Blind Faith’s Eric Clapton and “When the Levee Breaks” written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929 and most notably performed by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. This live recording features ten live performances in all, including more blues classics such as:
- “Shake Your Moneymaker“
- “The Sky Is Crying“
- “Further On Up the Road“
- “I Just Wanna Make Love to You“
Connor describes the project as a culmination of decades spent refining both her band and her craft, saying the recording finally captures what audiences have experienced for years in concert.
A Long Road to Recognition
Although born in Brooklyn and raised in Massachusetts, Connor found her musical home after moving to Chicago in the mid-1980s. There she apprenticed with blues legends including Johnny Littlejohn, Dion Payton, and A.C. Reed before becoming a headlining attraction in her own right at legendary clubs like Kingston Mines and the Checkerboard Lounge.
Her national profile exploded in 2021 with 4801 South Indiana Avenue, a critically acclaimed studio album co-produced by Joe Bonamassa. The album topped blues charts and introduced Connor to a much wider audience and grew her fan base exponentially. She followed that success with the 2023 release Best of Me, which showcased not only her guitar work but increasingly confident songwriting and vocals.
Rock at Night has covered her work extensively in the past. We were at her live show in Tampa in July of 2022 and interviewed her in 2021.
Why This Live Album Matters Right Now
Many blues fans have long argued that Joanna Connor’s live performances surpass her studio recordings. Her concerts are known for extended improvisation, explosive slide guitar solos, and an unmistakable chemistry with her touring band. That makes Live On 11/11 more than just another concert recording—it’s a document of an artist at the height of her powers, finally preserving the intensity that audiences have experienced for decades.
For fans of modern electric blues, Connor continues to prove that Chicago remains one of the world’s great blues cities. With this release, she’s not simply looking back on a remarkable career—she’s finally giving listeners the closest thing to standing in front of her stage with the amplifier turned all the way up.
This album is timely, especially with the current resurgence of women in blues guitar and artists like Samantha Fish, Sue Foley, and Carolyn Wonderland, just to name a few. This album reveals to longtime fans and to brand new ones how Joanna Connor helped pave the way for women in rock and blues, long before the current generation’s artists started to gain widespread recognition.
And she’s on tour now! Check out her website linked below for the tour dates.
“Joanna Connor has never needed studio polish to prove she’s one of the great blues guitarists of our time. After covering her music in the past for Rock At Night, it’s gratifying to finally hear the electricity of her live show captured on an album that does justice to her remarkable talent and adds to her legacy.”
— Anita Stewart, Rock At Night
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