Janiva Magness
NewMusicForOldFolks says …
Sometimes a Blues band is based around the guitar, and sometimes it's based around the singer. That doesn't mean that Stevie Ray Vaughan couldn't sing, but we know what we were there to see. Kermit The Frog could be up there singing "Texas Flood" and we'd pay to see Stevie play the guitar solos. I'm not sure what the guitar player equivalent is to Kermit, but we're there to see Javina Magness sing. And she can belt them out with the best of them. Magness has been winning Blue Music Awards for more than a decade. Just listen to her version of CCR's "Long as I Can See the Light" on Love Wins Again and you'll know what I'm talking about. The newest album, Love is an Army, mixes in some Soul and R&B with the Blues, but the voice shines through. The guitar's pretty good, too.
Artist's Info
Website: janivamagness.com
See her live: Tour dates
Record company: Blue Elan Records
Genre: Blues, Soul
If you like this, look into: Beth Hart, Ruthie Foster, The Holmes Brothers
Bio (From the artist's website)
After Janiva Magness added a 2016 Grammy nomination to her 26 Blues Music Award nominations — with seven wins, including Entertainer of the Year — she might have taken at least a short rest on her laurels. Instead, one of the preeminent voices in contemporary American roots music has raised the bar for herself. Magness’ 14th album, Love Is an Army, 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. (more)
Spotify sampler
Recordings
LOVE IS AN ARMY (2018): Love Is an Army’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-songwriter Bryan 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 singer Delbert 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.
OTHER RECORDINGS
More Than Live (1991)
It Takes One to Know One (1997)
My Bad Luck Soul (1999)
Blues Ain't Pretty (2001)
Use What You Got (2003)
Bury Him at the Crossroads (2004)
Do I Move You? (2006)
What Love Will Do (2008)
The Devil is an Angel Too (2010)
Stronger for It (2012)
Original (2014)
Love Wins Again (2016)
Blue Again EP (2017)
