Award-winning Ana Popovic to perform at Bilston's Robin 2

The Serbian singer/songwriter blends smoking electric funk and slide guitar with jazzy instrumentals and a tight blues groove.

Ana was born in Belgrade, Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia) and grew up in a warm family where music was very important. All through her youth, her father would invite friends over for nightly jam sessions.

In that atmosphere, she quickly learned her father's impressive blues and soul record collection, grabbed his guitar and started playing at the age of 15. Since then, Ana has developed into an phenomenal guitarist/vocalist with a growing legion of fans throughout the world.

She tirelessly tours, playing major blues, jazz and rock festivals, and has shared headlining stages with BB King, Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr, Jonny Lang and many others.

She is grateful to her father that he played such a big role in her career as a blues mentor. The duo recorded Blue Room together.

"Blue Room was a record I had initially done for myself and my children. I wasn't sure if we would get a song or two to release, but it turned out all of the songs made it to a father's day release record. It's dedicated to all the dads that support their guitar players, artists, and musicians."

Ana's other influences include guitar legends such as Albert King, Django Reinhardt and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Others include the great slide innovators Sonny Landreth and Elmore James.

"I love Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan. I think it's one of the most beautiful instrumentals ever recorded in the guitar world. I love Django Reinhardt's Nuages (Clouds), which is another great masterpiece."

Though Ana is busy on the road, she loves to sit down and write.

"It's got to be different. I don't like writing clichés. It's got to be something that's going to inspire, something that's going to make people think, that's going to discover someone's hidden passions.

"On Trilogy I have all kinds of songs, from environmental songs and political songs to pushing-your-limits songs to love songs, break-up songs and one-night-stand songs. Everything's got its place as long as it's not been done in such a way before."

Live shows, however, are where it's at.

"On a good night, I'm simply somewhere else. I'm in the zone: My instrument, my band and me. Its emotions, feelings; everything is coming loose through music. My band has to absolutely bring their personality to the band. I'm a bandleader but I want to be inspired by the great musicians that they are. I give them a lot of freedom but ask much in return, too. Every night needs to be spot-on. I love what I do so much so I surround myself with musicians who equally enjoy breaking new ground and improving with each time.

"Every tour is different. My favourite moments were playing with not one but two legends on stage: Buddy Guy and Billy Cox."