Big Girl Blues

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
All Music Guide to the Blues	[11]
The Boston Phoenix	[12]
The Commercial Appeal	[13]
DownBeat	[14]
Houston Chronicle	[15]
MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide	[5]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings	[4]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated, "Connor plays fast—incredibly fast sometimes—and doesn't leave much white space in her songs. She's definitely nimble, but at the same time sounds good and dirty."^[16] Stereo Review concluded that there are times when Connor "recalls both the gut-wrenching and the softas-butter-in-July sides of Janis Joplin."^[17] The Sarasota Herald-Tribune dismissed the album as blues rock and urged Connor to "stick to what she does best standard, 8- and 12-bar blues overlaid with a rich, emotionally restrained guitar and a shimmering slide highlights".^[18]

The Houston Chronicle noted that the songs "begin to reveal a woman, not just some blues mama acting macho."^[15] The Commercial Appeal called the album "lowdown bar blues in the best sense".^[13] The Buffalo News listed Big Girl Blues as the third best blues album of 1996; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch listed it as the fifth.^[19][20]