Janiva Magness

The Devil is an Angel Too

Alligator

By Stephanie Schorow

If love is a battlefield, then blues and R&B artist Janiva Magness is the seasoned soldier, weary, cynical but dogged in the belief that somehow it’s all worth the fight. In her newest release, The Devil is an Angel Too, Magness pushes her honey-whiskey voice to yawning emotional depths, wresting beauty and fury out of well-worn themes of betrayal and heartbreak. Whether with a belt or a whisper, Magness’s voice is an instrument of exquisite expression, infusing old standards with new meaning.

That she can draw artistry from dire experiences is a tribute to her own life story. The Detroit native lost both parents to suicide by age 16 and bounced from one foster home to another. At 17, she became a mother, giving her child up for adoption. Drawn to blues and soul, she began to sing and formed her first band in 1985. Intensive touring, charismatic performances and independent CD releases won her a devoted following and the honors have begun to pile up, including Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year in 2006.

Now, fresh from her 2009 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year (she is only the second woman to ever win this award), Magness is releasing her second album on the Alligator label, and plans to tour extensively to promote it.  

In The Devil, she opts for a rawer and earthier tone than in her previous Alligator release, What Love Will Do. She takes chances, pushing her vocal styling into new ground; she doesn’t always succeed, but her gutsiness is breathtaking.

Magness kicks things off with the title track by Julie and Buddy Miller, the rumbling percussion and guitar mirroring her growling, snarling tribute to the allure of the dark side. That knowing attitude pervades the next track, “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down,” a riff on karmic justice for the slipshod lover.

In Magness’s world, love isn’t for the faint-hearted. Even the light-hearted and rocking George Jackson/Clarence Carter ditty, “Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love,” depicts love as an unexpected pratfall, a kind of banana peel approach to affection. Here Magness is more wry than righteous, with infectious guitar work by both Dave Darling (the album producer) and Zach Zunis, baritone sax by Jeff Turmes,  Magness’ husband, and back-up vocals by Brie Darling.

Even when Magness is warbling about how much she loves her man in Joe Tex’s “I Want to Do Everything For You,” (with Brie Darling and Spanky D on backup vocals) she sends this soulful melody across that fine line between adoration and obsession. You almost want to tell the object of her affection, “Run for your life!” Magness saves her worst venom, however, for the “other woman/man” in “Homewrecker,” spitting out the words in slow, stately spite.

Magness’s chameleon qualities get showcased in the back-to-back positioning of the Gladys Knight hit “End of Our Road,” one of the liveliest get-lost songs in the canon, and the blues dirge “Save Me,” a hymn to a love that will not die. The only possible misstep is the slightly overdone and overwrought ballad, “Turn Your Heart in My Direction,” written by hubby Turmes.

But another Turmes-penned song, “Weeds Like Us,” cuts to the quick. The spare arrangements and Magness’s haunting, almost quavering, delivery underscore the poignancy of this poetic musing on addiction and decline. “Every day is an act of will/Weeds like us are hard to kill,” she sings and you can almost imagine the lonely, pregnant teenager in her tones. “Weeds Like Us” is a song that stays with you, with a bittersweet aftertaste that reminds us how life can be both tenacious and tenuous.  

Perhaps love is a battlefield, but the collaboration between Magness and Turmes (who also plays guitar and bass on most of the songs) snares victory from the cynical jaws of defeat.

Stephanie Schorow is a Boston-based freelance writer and book author. Her web site is www.stephanieschorow.com

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