These days, purists are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the blues world — at least if you define a blues purist as someone who believes that anything he/she performs must adhere to a 12-bar structure. So many of the bluesmen who were hailed as promising newcomers in the ’80s or ’90s — Robert Cray, Michael Hill, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others — were heavily influenced by soul, rock, or both. Ask a lot of younger blues artists who their influences are, and they just might mention Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, or Aretha Franklin along with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker. One of the more promising blues-friendly artists of the 2000s, Ana Popovic is far from a blues purist — truth be told, her second album Comfort to the Soul has as much to do with rock, soul, funk, and jazz as it does with the blues. Of course, many non-purists would argue that the blues are really about a feeling more than 12 bars — and anyone who shares that perspective will agree that the Yugoslavian performer brings a wealth of blues feeling to the table whether she is rocking out on “Fool Proof,” making some soul moves on the title track, or showing her jazzy side on the instrumental “Navajo Mood” and an inspired remake of Steely Dan’s “Night by Night.” The fact that Popovic includes a Steely Dan cover and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Sittin’ on Top of the World” on the same album is quite revealing — it underscores the fact that even though the blues obviously mean a lot to her, she sees no reason to deprive herself of the pleasures that other musical idioms offer. Popovic showed considerable promise on her debut album Hush!, and there are no signs of a sophomore slump on this excellent follow-up. – Alex Henderson