Contemporary blues singer Janiva Magness has been nominated for the 2013 Blues Music Awards / B.B. King Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year– Stronger for It, Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year, Contemporary Blues Album of the Year– Stronger for It and Song of the Year–I Won’t Cry (by Magness and Dave Darling) from Stronger for It. (She previously won the Blues Foundation’s 2009 B.B. King Entertainer of the Year.)
Her robust and soulful voice graces her newest CD, Stronger for It, which is deemed a little more passionate than some of her previous recordings including Devil is an Angel Too (2010), What Love Will Do (2008) and Do I Move You (2006).
A brief rundown of how Janiva came to the blues was recently unveiled in an interview with Lauren Daley: When Magness was 13, her mother committed suicide. When she was 16, her father followed suit. So Magness ran away from home. She was homeless on the streets of Berkley, California for six months, and got pregnant when she was 16.
Magness kept her baby girl for four months before realizing she could not take care of the infant, and gave her up for adoption. She numbed her pain with drink and drugs. She was often homeless, in and out of foster homes and social workers ultimately didn’t know how to help her, she said.
Today, at 55, Magness is an ambassador for Foster Care Alumni of America.
Magness — who hasn’t recorded her own songs since her 1997 debut — co-wrote three for her new album: There It Is, Whistling in The Dark and I Won’t Cry.
The new album also includes songs by Tom Waits, Matthew Sweet, Buddy and Julie Miller, Shelby Lynne, Grace Potter and Ray Wylie Hubbard — all with her unique vocal strengths that tug at your heart.
Stronger for It seems assertive and inspirational, more inventive than other recordings. Following recent difficult events in her life, she professes this is a statement of survival, singing about loss and now recovery.
We profess this to be yet another outstanding and passionate recording by a rather incredible original vocalist.
by Pamela Hulse Andrews
http://www.alligator.com/artists/Janiva-Magness/.