Janiva Magness

8-3-2018

Anyone who has ever heard Janiva Magness sing, live or on any of the 13 releases she has put out since coming on the scene 26 years ago, hears a charismatic, powerhouse performer who has survived a difficult life by anyone’s measure to become one of the top blues vocalists of her generation; only the second woman, after blues legend Koko Taylor, to win the Blues Music Awards’ coveted B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award in 2009 for Entertainer of the Year (the second woman to ever win this award, Koko Taylor was the first). She also won Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year, an honor she received in 2006 and 2007. She has received a total of seventeen Blues Music Award nominations. In 2015 she was nominated for Song of the Year for "Let Me Breathe" -Contemporary Blues Album for her CD, "Original" and she wonContemporary Blues Female Artist Of The Year. 

Magness’ 14th album, "Love Is an Army," just released in February, is a brilliantly crafted bridge between the past and present, blending the echoes of classic soul and Americana music with timeless themes of love and the very contemporary sound of protest. It's dozen songs reverberate with the timeless character of the Memphis Rhythm & Blues patented by the Stax and Hi Records studios, especially in tracks like “Back to Blue,” which opens the album and sets its tone, and “Hammer,” which features Grammy winning blues legend Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica. Another Tennessee music city, Nashville, is the geographic touchstone for the title number, a duet with Texas singer-songwriterBryan Stephens, and for “On and On,” with Poco frontman Rusty Young on pedal steel guitar. Like Magness, both Stephens and Young are on Blue Élan Records. Other guest artists include the legendary Grammy-winning R&B singerDelbert McClinton, Grammy-nominated Mississippi hill-country blues torchbearer Cedric Burnside, and Americana Music Award-nominated bluegrass guitar and banjo virtuoso Courtney Hartman from the band Della Mae. Magness’ inspired vocal performances unify all the elements of Love Is an Army and serve as a beacon for her coterie of guests.

Magness has more than earned her right to sing the blues. Her life story comes straight out of a blues song. As she recounts in her soon-to-be-published memoir, she was born in Detroit, and among the fondest memories of her childhood were the sounds of her father’s blues and country record collection. Childhood was short lived for Magness, however; as an adolescent she lost both parents to suicide. She spent the next several years bouncing around the foster care system, a traumatic experience that inspired her adult advocacy involvement with a variety of foster care programs. As a young woman, her life was seemingly spiraling out of control. She was saved one night in Minneapolis when, underage, she snuck into a show by bluesman Otis Rush, which started her down the music career path, working as a recording engineer before being coaxed out in front of a microphone as a backup singer and finally forming her own group in Arizona. Since then Magness’ life has not been without its downs, but she has persevered. 

“Getting a Grammy nomination was a dream,” Magness offers. “I never thought I’d be a Grammy-nominated artist. But I guess I also feel a certain amount of pressure to follow that with an album that really makes a statement - a statement about who I am and what I believe and the music I love. Love Is an Army does all of that, and I hope it helps somebody else to be as inspired and empowered as I was when we were making it.”

“One of the most fiery and original vocalists in contemporary blues and soul… Thoughtful, inventive and almost unerringly on the money.” - MOJO  

      VIDEO (Janiva & Ronnie Earl at Bull Run)