This past week, the number one album on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart was Stronger For It, the March, 2012, Alligator release by Janiva Magness. When you look back over her life you can see a long history of triumph and tragedy as well as success and struggle. She also has a dogged determination to do right by others. All of the well deserved accolades and awards that have come to her in recent years are also part of her story. Over the past several months, all of life’s ups and downs have seemingly been hurled at her in a way that could be construed as some kind of bizarre, sick cosmic joke. Janiva Magness however contends she is stronger for it. I caught up with the chart topping multi Blues Music Award winner while she was traveling in the midwest on her current tour. She touched on many of these themes. The following is part of our conversation.  

David Mac (DM): What got you started rolling down the blues highway?

Janiva Magness (JM): I was very lucky to have seen B.B. King and Otis Rush as a young person. I was riveted. Otis Rush performed like his life depended on it. I saw Etta James when I was in my early twenties. It was a total game changer for me. She sang like she had everything to prove and not a goddamn thing to lose. I wanted more of that. I wanted to be part of whatever that intensity was that these great artists were conveying to their audiences.

DM: One of the things I have enjoyed about your performances I have seen through the years is that you eschew the show business maxim that says, ‘Never let them see you sweat’. You always let them see you sweat.

JM: (laughs)

DM: What I mean by that is there is a real human quality, a truth if you will, in your live performances, that is very palpable. I think the audience responds to that. I know I do. It is a very powerful thing.

JM: Listen, I am not fucking around up there. There are a lot of people and you know who I’m talking about Dave, who are just taking up space on the bandstand. I am not one of those posers who is just going through the motions up there.

People work very hard every day to make a buck and when they come out to spend that hard earned money they deserve something in return. They want the truth. My job is to give them that truth. Making that connection with the audience by telling them the truth is what it is all about.

DM: How is the tour going?

JM: It is going really well. I am playing a lot of songs off the new record obviously, as I am touring in support of the album. I was extremely nervous about doing this tour. I always get kind of nervous anyway but this time I was extra nervous. The crowds have been great. It is amazing to see the audience singing along.

DM: To the new songs?

JM: Yes! That is the amazing part. It is very gratifying. The record is getting a lot of radio airplay and is doing great. People have really responded to it.

DM: By the way I checked the Roots Music Report before I called you. The record is number one this week on its blues chart. Congratulations. What went into making Stronger for It the record that it became?

JM: 2011 was a very tough year for a lot of folks, as it was for me. I buried eight people including my brother and foster mom. My 17-year marriage came to an end and I made an album. All this is going on and I was having my busiest year of touring in my entire career. It is a million miles from where I wanted to be at this stage in my life but you have to live life on life’s terms. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fighter but sometimes there is nothing you can do about what is hurled in your direction. It is confusing to me sometimes. It is puzzling really. I wonder sometimes what I am still doing here.

I have my music though and what was happening in my life is what you hear coming out of the CD. It is a very personal album. It is also a very intimate record.

DM: Let’s talk about a key component of the new record, Dave Darling.

JM: I have known Dave a long time. I am lucky to be able to work with him. He produced and mixed the new album. He plays several instruments on the record and co-wrote along with myself the original material on the CD. He is able to pull things out of me.

DM: I had to go way back in your catalogue to find an original song for which you received a writing credit. On Stronger For It, there are three originals that you co-wrote with Dave.

JM: That’s right. I haven’t written a song since 1997 when I co-wrote one with Jeff Turmes. It is something I could just not get around to do. When I wrote these tunes on the new album I would write a lyric and send it to Dave and we would bat it back and forth to one another. In some cases I did the lyrics and he would do the music.

DM: Guitarist Zach Zunis has been with you a long time, he is on the record as well.

JM: I have worked with Zach for a very long time. It has been at least ten years or something like that. I am very fortunate to have these long term relationships. Like I said I feel very lucky to be able to work with such talented people who I am proud to call my friends as well. The musicians on the record are the same guys who are on the road with me. 

DM: What do you like to do when you are not working?  

JM: This music thing is a 36 hour a day job, eight days a week so it is pretty all encompassing. Touring is very difficult. I have to make very tough decisions every day. It is very hard, not for the faint of heart let me tell you. I love yoga when I get the chance. It calms me the fuck down. When I am home I love to refinish furniture. I don’t think many people know that about me.

DM: They do now.  One of the things that I have admired about you is you are not afraid to let people know what is on your mind.  

JM: I think a lot of people are put off by my honesty. It makes them uncomfortable. That is not my intention.

DM: I can definitely relate to that. Through the years you have taken an advocacy position for various causes you feel strongly about. Most recently you have been involved with a benefit concert called Big Love (a benefit for blues singer Candye Kane). How did that come about?

JM: It came out of a late night conversation I had with Michael Kinsman who I have known for a very long time. We just wanted to create a scenario where we could give Candye some kind of buffer to help offset her ongoing medical expenses. As you know she has had a reoccurrence of pancreatic cancer. She has been battling that disease for a couple of years now.

The event will be Monday night, April 30th at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA. I am looking forward to singing with Rick Estrin and the Nightcats. Debbie Davies, The Beat Farmers, Dave Alvin, Anson Funderburgh, Carl Sonny Leyland and others are on the bill. Kim Wilson has just been added to the event. There will be current and former members of Candye’s band performing there as well. It will be huge.

I hope to see you there.

DM: I wouldn’t miss it. Thanks Janiva.

- David Mac