Anna Popovic is proof that the blues, although American in origin, has become a truly international language. Born in Belgrade in the country formerly known as Yugoslavia, she fell in love with the songs in her father's collection of blues and soul records and decided to deote her life to making that music. Traveling to the Netherlands to study music at the Utrecht Academy, she began performing and gradually built up an international reputation. She is the first European artist to win the American Blues Foundation's Blues Music Award for best new artist debut.

Blind for Love is her second American album and, believe me, there is nothing European about it. The music, her approach and attitudes are as American as I am; if you didn't know her history, you'd think she grew up on the south side of Chicago.

Equally at home with electric and acoustic guitar, this woman wails. Her playing is hot, skilled and moving. She takes the old blues cliches and turns them inside out, creating something new out of the old. Sure, she knows the formulas and uses them but she goes beyond them, giving the music her own original twist.

This one will spend a lot of time in your CD player.