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Jo Ann Kelly (5 January 1944 — 21 October 1990) was a English blues singer and guitarist.

Kelly was born in Streatham, South London, and with her brother, Dave Kelly, became blues fans in their teens.

Few women were singing or playing the blues during the 1960s, let alone with her skill or understanding of early blues styles.[citation needed] Kelly had a voice far bigger than her slight frame would suggest; with a rich, deep, tonal quality that could easily have come from Dinah Washington or Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[citation needed] After establishing a musical partnership with the British blues musician Tony McPhee, Kelly appeared on two McPhee compiled albums for Liberty Records, Me And The Devil (1968) and I Asked for Water, She Gave Me Gasoline (1969).

At the end of the 1960s, with an album on a major record label in the United States, it seemed that she might be spirited away there and moulded into another Janis Joplin. Both Johnny Winter and Canned Heat tried to recruit Kelly into their ranks. However, her allegiance was to the United Kingdom and the nightclub scene, although, the 1970s and 1980s would fail to support her financially and so she took to the European circuit, latterly with the guitarist Pete Emery or in bands. Indeed, in the early 1980s, she was a member of the Terry Smith Blues Band.

In 1988, Kelly began to suffer from headaches. In 1989 she had an operation to remove a malignant brain tumour. She died in October 1990, at the age of 46.

The latest Kelly compilation album, Blues and Gospel, is available on Blues Matters! Records.

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.

01. Pigmeat Blues
02. Stocking Feet Blues
03. Henry Miller's Dream
04. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
05. What's The Matter?
06. High Sheriff Blues
07. Arrangement For Me Blues
08. Bothering That Thing
09. Soo Cow Soo
10. Jo's Mistreated Blues
11. Tricks Ain't Walking No More
12. I Want You To Know
13. New Mind Reader Blues