Jo Ann Kelly - with J. Fahey, W. Mann & Seidler Kelly began a career in England just as the 60's blues revival was hitting its full swing. She gained initial attention mixing everything from Charly Patton and Bessie Smith to Sister Rosetta Tharpe into an
acoustic blues style that was only further strengthened by her powerful voice. She recorded her first LP with The Groundhogs' Tony McPhee and was later offered spots with Canned Heat and Johnny Winter but declined these out of a desire not to be integrated into a band setting. Here she's ably backed by none other than John Fahey whose fingerpicked style lends itself nicely to Jo Ann's country blues. In the end it was her focus on the acoustic side of blues that let her slip between the cracks, with contemporaries like Janis Joplin finding much wider audiences mixing blues with harder rock. Though she's come to be revered in retrospect as a key voice in women's blues and folk, Kelly's work went sorely unappreciated during her lifetime but still she played well into the nineties before her untimely death. Download: [MP3] Jo Ann Kelly - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues [MP3] Jo Ann Kelly - High Sheriff Blues Support the artist. Buy it: HERE