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***************************** Saturday, March 28, 2009 JANIVA MAGNESS Opening set: Guy Budd & the Gypsy Souls **************************** SLO Vets Hall 801 Grand Avenue 8PM Members $17 / General Admission $20 21 & over, please
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BLUES SHOW REVIEW. The San Luis Obispo Blues Society presents award winning vocalist Janiva Magness on Saturday, March 28. Guy Budd and the Gypsy Souls will be opening the show. The dance concert starts at 8:00 pm at the SLO Vets Hall, 801 Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo. SLO Dance is offering free dance lessons from 7:30 - 8:00 pm. Tickets are $17 for Blues Society members and $20 for the general public. All tickets are sold at the door. 21 and over, please. For more information or to volunteer, call 805/541-7930.
JANIVA
MAGNESS
To
say that Janiva Magness is an award winning vocalist is an understatement.
She won the Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Female Artist in 2006
and 2007, and is nominated in four categories in 2009, including Album
of the Year for her most recent release What Love Will Do (Alligator Records).
Her 2006 release Do I Move You? was the #1 record of the year on the Blues
Radio airplay charts, while her 2004 release Bury Him At The Crossroads
won a Canadian Maple Blues Award. Magness was recently featured on
the cover of Blues Revue, who called her “one of the greatest success stories
on today’s scene.”
Since the era of Robert Johnson, blues biographers have been drawn to tragic stories, a tendency Janiva skillfully redirects to draw attention to a social need. Born in Detroit, Magness was inspired by the blues and country in her father’s record collection, along with the city’s classic Motown sound. Janiva’s teenage years were filled with challenges. She had lost both parents to suicide by the time she was 16. She lived on the streets, was in 12 foster homes in two years, and became a teenage mother who gave her baby daughter up for adoption. Inspired by Otis Rush, Magness began singing the blues, making her way to Phoenix in the 1980s and befriending Bob Tate, Sam Cooke’s musical director. With Tate’s mentoring, she formed her first band and within the year was named Best Blues Band by the Phoenix New Times. In 1986, she moved to Los Angeles and began working her way up. These days, Janiva uses her fame to promote National Foster Care Month as a national spokesperson for Casey Family Programs. And, yes, she has been reunited with her daughter, “I have a life today I never could have imagined,” says Magness, “The tragedies of my life no longer define me.”
Blues
music has a long tradition of embedding adult themed lyrics in a danceable
rhythm and a distinctive chord progression, accented by bent notes.
It’s a form that allows performers to express a wide range of emotions.
As Magness says, “For me the blues has been about redemption, about healing.
This kind of music requires that you don’t hold back any pain, and you
don’t hold back any joy.” Compared to her earlier releases, What
Love Will Do is soul focused. Janiva’s voice is warm and rich, versatile
and equally well-suited to expressing desire, rebuke, and need. It
has a slightly husky timbre that imbues every phrase with a worldly overtone.
It’s the kind of sound that might make you play the same song, “I won’t
be around” or “Sometimes you got to gamble” for instance, several times
in a row. Janiva’s band includes Benny Yee, formerly Coco Montoya’s
keyboard player, Zach Zunis on guitar, Gary Davenport on bass and Tom Fillman
on drums. Visit her website
for more.
GUY BUDD
& THE GYPSY SOULS
The
band features the wildly expressive Guy Budd on guitar and vocals, Will
Anderson on bass, Howard Emmons on drums, and Ken Burton on keyboards.
Guy Budd first played for the Blues Society in 1989, when he opened for
Lazy Lester. Their website
(http://www.guybudd.com/) includes music samples and other show dates.
VOLUNTEER. Your Blues Society is run entirely by volunteers. Besides a sense of accomplishment, volunteers get into the shows for free and receive a couple free drink tickets. We could use your help, so call 541-7930 (our voice mail number) and volunteer to work a shift at the show.
DANCE
LESSONS.
East Coast Swing Lessons with Linda Drake & SLO Dance. Chris
Harmon and other award-winning instructors from SLO Dance offer beginning
swing dance lessons at 7:30 before each Blues Society show. Lessons
are free with admission to the show and no partner is necessary.
Linda Drake’s staff at SLO Dance includes several nationally recognized
award-winning dancers and instructors in both Ballroom and Swing.
SLO Dance staff consistently earns awards in major dance competitions and
are in constant training as instructors. Visit their website
for more information.
