Ana Popović – Dance to the RhythmElectric Heel Recordswww.anapopovic.com10 songs – 39 minutesA genuine force to be reckoned with, nothing can stop Ana Popović, the seven-time BMA-nominated slide guitarist. She continued performing while battling breast cancer during the pandemic, a battle she documented with the award-winning CD, Power, in 2023. Now victorious two years later, she has plenty of reasons to celebrate, and she does it in style with this flawless flow-up.The daughter of a blues-loving graphic artist, guitarist and bassist, Ana was born in Belgrade in what was formerly Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and now calls Los Angeles home. While you might be more familiar with her assertive voice and fretwork, which ranges from tight grooves to smoking funk reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, she’s also a student of jazz, having studied at a conservatory in the Netherlands.And all of that training comes through in this fluid set, which is guaranteed to have you up and moving from the down stroke to the last note.Captured by Jeff Bates at Kona Town Recording Studio in Redondo Beach, Calif., Popović co-produced and arranged the album with Buthel, who contributes bass guitar and sings background vocals.They’re joined by keyboard players Michele Papadia and Jeremy Thomas, drummers Chris Coleman and Donnel Spencer along with horn players Claudio Giovagnoli, Davide Ghidoni, Jordan Carr, Evan Knight and Brett Lamel. Karl Vandenbosche and Frank Moca sit in on percussion. And Traci Nelson, Skyler Gordon, J Sabin and Jordana Kelley take turns on backing vocals.From the sweeping, uptempo opening of “Dance to the Rhythm,” you know you’re in for something special…a spirited, soul-filled mix that’ll power you out on the floor to strut your stuff. “I’m gonna groove you and slide you/Move you up and down/Dance you all the way to the finish line.” And, boy, she’s not kidding!The cautionary “Worked Up” kicks off with horn flair as Ana warns a lover that he’d better be careful because he’s awakened on the wrong side of the bed. Her mid-tune solo drives the message home. It gives way to the only cover in the set, Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” which gets a bluesy, 21st century makeover with Popović inserting Latin accents atop a bongo beat.Living in the Golden State isn’t all peaches and cream, as she enumerates in the bluesy “California Chase,” noting “It’s rough but it’s pretty” and that you have to be tough because every diamond with your name on it is buried in the dirt.Ana’s guitar comes to the fore in “Hurt So Good,” the first of consecutive numbers penned by Sabin, delivering another funky sermon about how not to mistreat you woman. It gives way to “Sho Nuf,” a uptempo, syncopated toast to perseverance in reaching your goals before the tempo slows for a moment for the love song, “Dwell on the Feeling,” which finds Ana enjoying a world where she doesn’t feel “trapped, subdued or just passing though.”The heat kicks up a notch and the funk does, too, for “Soulution,” which cautions not to be vain, chasing things you really don’t want, before “Hottest Ticket in Town” serves as a memory of a band from Ana’s youth that “disturbed the peace beating on pots and pans to the roar of fans. The Latin-flavored “Sisters and Brothers” urges fans to love one another through these days of trouble because there are better times ahead.Sure, this isn’t you’re straight-ahead, one-four-five blues outing. Blues runs through it, but it’s something else entirely…and it’s, oh, so go-o-od! Grab your significant other and give it a spin.