1 	Where My Good Man At 	
2 	Moon's Going Down 	
3 	Death Have Mercy 	
4 	Weekend Blues 	
5 	2:19 Blues 	
6 	Ain't Nothing But Ramblin 	
7 	Jonah In The Belly 	
8 	Come See About Me 	
9 	Try Me One More Time 	
10 	Sugar Babe 	
11 	Bollweevil Blues 	
12 	Love Blind 	
13 	Wide Open Road 	
14 	God Bless The Child 	
15 	Black Rat Swing 	
16 	Boney Maroney 	

Jo-Ann Kelly - Vocals, Guitar

Recorded at Kassenhalle/Sparkasse am Brill, Bremen, Germany, 20.09.1988 

Like Memphis Minnie before her, Jo Ann Kelly was the genuine article: a woman who could play the Blues as hard and deep as any man. Her rich, strong voice and authentic acoustic slide guitar work made her a big attraction on the British folk/blues circuit. Usually playing alone and sometimes singing ‘a capella’, she could convey her Blues like a Delta original.

As a teenager in London, she and her brother Dave were fans of the growing London Blues scene that was gathering momentum in the early 60s, and both were influenced by the slide playing of Mississippi Fred McDowell, who Jo Ann was later to share the stage with. She teamed up with Tony (TS) McPhee of the Groundhogs and also with The John Dummer Blues Band, recording two albums with each group, but she was essentially a solo artist. When she jammed with Canned Heat, they wanted her to join them and she turned down the same offer from Johnny Winter, but she helped to form The Blues Band with her brother Dave, ex-Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning and harp player Paul Jones.

Jo Ann’s 1974 album ‘Key to the Highway’ shows what she was all about; adapting country and soul numbers to her own acoustic Blues style and writing some great songs of her own. She often guested with bands like Tramp and Chilli Willi on the British club scene, and used The Blues Band to back her in her show ‘Ladies and the Blues’, where she paid tribute to female stars like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Bessie Smith. In 1988, Jo Ann began complaining of severe headaches and investigation detected a brain tumour, which was removed. She seemed to have recovered and was gigging again but, tragically, she died shortly afterwards. ---allaboutbluesmusic.com

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A1 Pigmeat Blues
A2 Stocking Feet Blues
A3 Henry Miller's Dream
A4 Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
A5 What's the Matter?
A6 High Sheriff Blues
A7 Arrangement for Me Blues

B1 Bothering That Thing
B2 Soo Cow Soo
B3 Jo's Mistreated Blues
B4 Tricks Ain't Walking No More
B5 I Want You to Know
B6 New Mind Reader Blues

Jo Ann Kelly – vocals, guitar
John Fahey – guitar
Woody Mann – guitar
Alan Seidler – piano
John Miller – guitar

I picked this album up in a second-hand shop for a buck because John Fahey was on it and let me tell you, this is one great LP! This gal was born to sing the blues and if you are a blues fan who enjoys the more traditional blues of people like Bonnie Raitt and others, you must have this record. I understand it's hard to find as are all of Jo's records, but the music is first rate: fine guitar playing and a voice that sounds like it's right out of the gutter and I mean that in the best, blue-tradition way possible. --- Truenorth, rateyourmusic.com

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1. Long Black Hair
2. Boyfriend Blues
3. New Milk Cow Blues
4. I Looked Down the Line (and I Wondered)
5. Whose Been Telling You Buddie Brown Eyes
6. Black Rat Swing
7. Walking Blues
8. Just Like I Treat You
9. Sugar Babe
10. The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly Hair
11. Special Baby Blues
12. Someday Baby Blues
13. Moon Going Down
14. Make Me a Pallet
15. Sweet Nothin's
16. Big Boss Man

Jo Ann Kelly - guitar, vocals

The Jo Ann Kelly archive has been very poorly treated over the years, with only Indigo's occasional forays during the late 1990s truly spotlighting one of Britain's most underrated, but highly-treasured, blues vocalists. Into this sorry state of affairs weighs Blues Matters!, the label wing of the magazine of the same name, with a collection that totally lives up to its title. Sixteen tracks, recorded between 1967-1984, are bundled up within, and capture Kelly ranging across the stylistic spectrum. The set kicks off with four numbers taken from a rare Harlequin blues EP compilation, recorded with Tony McPhee in 1965. This was not Kelly's first session, she'd done an earlier one for Mike Vernon's Purdah label, but that remains unreleased, and thus this was the music with which Kelly was introduced to the world. Also featured are a pair of tracks from another scarce blues Harlequin compilation, this one released by the label in 1968, as well as a few more taken from other various rare collections. However, the bulk of the album boasts a stream of superb unreleased material, including no less than five songs recorded with guitarist Stefan Grossman during his U.K. tour in the summer of 1977. Kelly guested at several of his shows during that outing, and her performances -- captured for posterity on-tape by Grossman's own tape recorder, and unveiled here for the first time, are as powerful as any of her own period recordings. A wonderful album that hopefully will bring Kelly the acclaim she so justly deserves. --- Jo-Ann Greene, Album Note

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1.I Can't Be Satisfied 	3:45
2.Wide Open Road 	4:42
3.Death Have Mercy 	2:22
4.Moon Going Down 	3:01
5.River Jordan 	4:05
6.You've Changed 	2:30
7.Little More Time 	3:58
8.Love Blind 	2:47
9.Jonah In The Belly Of The Whale 	2:03
10.Sugar Babe 	3:46
11.Rising Sun Shine On 	2:05
12.Come See About Me 	4:36

Jo Ann Kelly - Vocals, Twelve-string Guita
Pete Emery - Electric Guitar, Guitar
Steve Donnelly - Electric Bass, Electric Guitar
Geraint Watkins - Accordion, Keyboards, Piano

5 January 1944, Streatham, London, England, d. 21 October 1990, England. This expressive blues singer, sister of Blues Band guitarist Dave Kelly, was renowned as one of the finest of the genre. She made her recording debut in 1964 on a privately pressed EP and appeared on several specialist labels before contributing a series of excellent performances to guitarist Tony McPhee’s Groundhogs recordings, issued under the aegis of United Artists. Her self-titled solo album displayed a hard, gritty vocal delivery evocative of Memphis Minnie and confirmed the arrival of a major talent. In 1969, the singer appeared live with Mississippi Fred McDowell and later made several tours of the USA. Kelly became a constituent part of the British blues circuit, recording with the John Dummer Blues Band, Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers and Stefan Grossman. In 1972, she completed an album with Woody Mann, John Miller and John Fahey, before forming a group, Spare Rib, which performed extensively throughout the UK. Kelly recorded a second solo album, Do It, in 1976 and maintained her popularity throughout the 70s and 80s with appearances at European blues festivals and judicious live work in Britain. Her last performance was at a festival in Lancashire in August 1990, when she was given the award for Female Singer of the Year by the British Blues Federation. Having apparently recovered from an operation in 1989 to remove a malignant brain tumour, she died in October 1990. Kelly was unique because she sounded so authentic and sincere, and yet she looked so frail and folkish. Her voice was incredible and her feeling and appreciation for the blues was radiated to anybody that knew her. --- oldies.com

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1. Nothin' In Rambling - 3:11
2. Swing Down Chariot - 3:22
3. Little More Time - 3:40
4. Boll Weevil - 1:42
5. Walking The Dog - 3:49
6. Black Rat Swing - 3:08
7. River Jordan - 3:40
8. Where's My Good Man - 3:46
9. Come Back Baby - 4:32
10. Me And Chauffer - 3:32
11. Do It - 1:39

Jo Ann Kelly - vocal, 6 and 12-string guitar
Pete Emery - 6-string and slide guitar, mandolin, electric guitar
John Pilgrim - washboard
Mike Piggott – violin

A white English girl who sang the blues, and whose voice was compared to the very best. Bonnie Raitt equated her with Mavis Staples; Memphis Minnie was said to be a big influence. As a schoolgirl she hung around a legendary record shop, Dave Carey's Swing Shop in Streatham Hill; the other regulars included her brother Dave (later with the Blues Band) and Tony McPhee (later with the Goundhogs). When they first started playing guitars, Dave later said, ?we thought we were the only people in the country playing country blues. We'd hang around waiting for records to come in by John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins and all the others.' When she left school she announced her intention to become a professional folk singer, but was drawn irresistibly to the blues.

A limited edition EP Blues & Gospel with McPhee was released '64. She played with the early Yardbirds; she appeared on the bill of the first National Blues Federation Convention in London '68 alongside Davey Graham, Stefan Grossman, Ian Anderson (later the editor of Folk Roots), Champion Jack Dupree, Alexis Korner and others.

At the next year's Convention, she performed with members of Canned Heat and they asked her to join them, but she signed to CBS '69, hailed as ?Britain's answer to Janis Joplin, the sixties' answer to Bessie Smith.' Jo-Ann Kelly was released on Epic '69 (reissued on Beat Goes On '99): the British ?blues boom' was almost over, but she stayed close to the real thing. CBS sent her to the USA that year; she rehearsed with Johnny Winter and appeared on the same bill with her heroes Bukka White and Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Centenary Blues Festival in Memphis (the only British artist who was invited), and duetted with McDowell on his Standing At The Burial Ground, made live in London that year. But her promotion including a USA college tour was underfunded and left her exhausted. –Ddonald Clarke, musicbox.com

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01. Louisiana Blues (Waters) - 3:29
02. Fingerprints Blues (Joe McCoy) - 3:25
03. Driftin' And Driftin' (Oscar Brown, Jr./Warren "Pete" Moore/Williams) - 2:38
04. Look Here Partner (Jo-Ann Kelly) - 2:34
05. Moon Going Down (Charley Patton) - 4:01
06. Yellow Bee Blues (Joe McCoy) - 3:45
07. Whiskey Head Woman (Tommy McClennan) - 1:50
08. Sit Down On My Knee (Jo-Ann Kelly) - 2:42
09. Man I'm Lovin' (Hooker/Josea) - 2:42
10. Jinx Blues (Son House) - 2:30
11. Come On In My Kitchen (Robert Johnson) - 2:48


- Jo-Ann Kelly - guitar, vocals, arranger

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all -- Jo Ann Kelly -- seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Born January 5, 1944, Kelly and her older brother Dave were both taken by the blues, and born at the right time to take advantage of a young British blues scene in the early '60s. By 1964 she was playing in clubs, including the Star in Croydon, and had made her first limited-edition record with future Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. She expanded to play folk and blues clubs all over Britain, generally solo, but occasionally with other artists, bringing together artists like Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe into her own music. After the first National Blues Federation Convention in 1968 her career seemed ready to take flight. She began playing the more lucrative college circuit, followed by her well-received debut album in 1969. At the second National Blues Convention, she jammed with Canned Heat, who invited her to join them on a permanent basis. She declined, not wanting to be a part of a band -- and made the same decision when Johnny Winter offered to help her. Throughout the '70s, Kelly continued to work and record solo, while also gigging for fun in bands run by friends, outfits like Tramp and Chilli Willi -- essentially pub rock, as the scene was called, and in 1979 she helped found the Blues Band, along with brother Dave, and original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning. The band backed her on an ambitious show she staged during the early '80s, Ladies and the Blues, in which she paid tribute to her female heros. In 1988, Kelly began to suffer pain. A brain tumor was diagnosed and removed, and she seemed to have recovered, even touring again in 1990 with her brother before collapsing and dying on October 21. Posthumously, she's become a revered blues figure, one who helped clear the path for artists like Bonnie Raitt and Rory Block. But more than a figurehead, her recorded material -- and unreleased sides have appeared often since her death -- show that Kelly truly was a remarkable blueswoman. ---Chris Nickson, allmusic.com

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