Janiva Magness

Blues and soul singer Janiva Magness was no stranger to trouble and hard times growing up, and she pours that lifetime of emotion into her passionate phrasing and vocal delivery. Her music is steeped in Chicago blues, vintage soul, and a dash of classic rock (the latter especially on 2019's Janiva Magness Sings John Fogerty: Change in the Weather), and she sings with an emotional force that rings true and strong while making room for vulnerability on songs rooted in heartache, like "You Were Never Mine," from 2006's Do I Move You? More than a decade after her solo debut, Magness enjoyed a breakthrough with her first album for powerhouse blues label Alligator, 2008's What Love Will Do, and 2022's Hard to Kill was a personal effort full of songs of tribulation and resilience. 2025's Back for Me saw her paying tribute to the lesser-known works of some of her favorite songwriters. Born in Detroit on January 30, 1957, Janiva Magness grew up listening to her father's blues and country record collection, as well as the Motown pop-soul sound that poured from the radio, all of which shaped her style and approach as a musician. She lost both of her parents to suicide while in her early teens, and she ended up living on the streets, channeled through endless foster homes, before becoming pregnant at the age of 17 and being forced to give up the child for adoption. Her personal and creative redemption came at an Otis Rush show in Minneapolis. Discouraged, stressed, and underage, Magness snuck into the club and was transformed by Rush's performance. That was the moment, Magness maintains, that her vision of herself as a singer and musician began to take shape. She started out as a background singer, finally ending up in Phoenix in the early '80s, where she formed the Mojomatics, a popular local band. Magness next relocated to Los Angeles in 1986. A debut cassette, More Than Live, appeared in the mid-'90s, with her first CD, It Takes One to Know One, appearing in 1996, followed by three more independent releases. She signed with NorthernBlues Music, and Bury Him at the Crossroads was issued by the label in 2004, with Do I Move You? following two years later in 2006. Magness began drawing positive critical and fan attention in the blues community, and soon her career was in full swing, garnering an armful of blues awards. She signed with Alligator Records in 2008, issuing What Love Will Do that same year. 2010's The Devil Is an Angel Too was another soulful set of blues chestnuts, and 2012's Stronger for It was dominated by songs she wrote herself, for the first time since her debut. Original, which featured a dozen original Magness songs, appeared from her own Fat Head Records imprint in 2014. Pairing with Blue Élan Records to increase Fat Head's distribution, she delivered Love Wins Again, a confident and soulful meditation on the power of love, in early 2016; the record rose to number six on the Blues Albums chart. The following year saw the release of an EP, Blue Again. The full-length album Love Is an Army arrived in 2018; her accompanists included Charlie Musselwhite, Delbert McClinton, and Cedric Burnside. In 2019, Magness published a memoir, Weeds Like Us, a brutally honest look back at a life of abuse, addiction, and redemption. The book was well-reviewed, and later the same year, she paid tribute to an unlikely influence with the LP Janiva Magness Sings John Fogerty: Change in the Weather, in which she covered a dozen songs by the former Creedence Clearwater Revival leader. The album also featured guest vocals from veteran blues artist Taj Mahal on "Lodi." The confessional nature of Magness' autobiography informed her 2022 release Hard to Kill, which featured several songs inspired by her own life experiences. 2025's Back for Me found Magness putting her own spin on ten underappreciated songs from some of her favorite songwriters, among them Allen Toussaint, Bill Withers, Tracy Nelson, Ray LaMontagne, and Doyle Bramhall II. The sessions also featured guitar firepower from guest stars Joe Bonamassa, Sue Foley, and Jesse Dayton. In addition to her career in music, Magness is an advocate for children in foster care and an ambassador for Foster Care Alumni as well as the Child Welfare League of America.
© Steve Leggett & Mark Deming /TiVo

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