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JANIVA MAGNESS’ NEW CD, WHAT LOVE WILL DO,
OUT ON JUNE 10!

ALLIGATOR RECORDS PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MAY 9, 2008
CONTACT: MARC LIPKIN / CHRIS LEVICK 773-973-7736
email: publicity@allig.com

On Thursday, May 8, The Blues Foundation announced the winners of the 2008 Blues Music Awards (formerly known as the W.C. Handy Awards). Three Alligator recording artists received a total of five awards.

Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor (a 2008 Grammy nominee as well) received three awards, including nods for Traditional Blues Album Of The Year for Old School, Song Of The Year for Taylor’s original Gonna Buy Me A Mule and Traditional Female Artist Of The Year. The Holmes Brothers and Sam Lay (of The Siegel-Schwall Blues Band), each received one award.

The Blues Music Awards are recognized as the highest honor given to blues artists. The Blues Music Awards ceremony and concert was held May 8, 2008 at the Grand Casino Event Center in Tunica Resorts, Mississippi.  Alligator artists and awards are as follows:

KOKO TAYLOR
Traditional Blues Album of the Year: Old School
Song of the Year: Gonna Buy Me A Mule, written by Koko Taylor
Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year

THE HOLMES BROTHERS
Soul Blues Album of the Year: State Of Grace

SAM LAY (THE SIEGEL-SCHWALL BLUES BAND)
Instrumentalist of the Year - Drums


 

ALLIGATOR RECORDS PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 28, 2008
CONTACT: MARC LIPKIN / ALLIGATOR RECORDS / 773-973-7736 x235
EMAIL: publicity@allig.com

“A superb, powerhouse R&B singer who delivers blues and soul with show-stopping authority.” 

–Los Angeles Daily News

Alligator Records has set a June 10 street date for WHAT LOVE WILL DO, the label debut CD from blues and soul vocalist Janiva Magness. Possessing a rich, soulful voice and absolute command over her material, Magness is an incredibly gifted performer who can lead her audience through a range of emotions, from the deepest sorrow to overwhelming joy.

Winner of the 2006 and 2007 Blues Music Award for Best Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year, Magness is nominated in the Blues Entertainer Of The Year category this year. Her presence on stage is legendary, as she performs 150 nights a year at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world. In April 2008, she traveled to Iraq and Kuwait co-headlining Bluzapalooza, the first-ever blues concert tour to perform for American troops.

A survivor of an impossibly rough childhood, Magness’ life experience informs her music in a way that is brutally honest, emotionally moving and, above all, spiritually healing. Part of her healing includes helping others in need. In addition to her musical accomplishments, Magness, a foster care alumni, is also a National Spokesperson for Casey Family Programs, promoting National Foster Care Month.

WHAT LOVE WILL DO, co-produced by Magness and Dave Darling (Brian Setzer, Meredith Brooks, Dan Hicks), features 13 powerful songs, each overflowing with Magness’ expressive emotional intensity. Magness reaches heights only hinted at in her previous recordings, interpreting new material written especially for her and songs from Little Milton, Tina Turner, Bill Withers, Al Green, Candi Staton, Dorothy Moore and Marvin Gaye. Her impassioned singing takes each song from deep within her being and projects it out directly into the heart and soul of her audience, making WHAT LOVE WILL DO essential listening for blues, roots rock and soul music lovers everywhere.

Born in Detroit, Magness was inspired by the blues and country she heard listening to her father’s record collection and by the vibrant music of the city’s classic Motown sound. By her teenage years, though, her life was in chaos. She lost both parents to suicide by the time she was 16. She lived on the streets, was in 12 foster homes in two years, became a teenage mother who gave her baby daughter up for adoption, bounced from city to city, feeling hopeless and desperate.

One winter’s night, Magness hitchhiked across Minneapolis to attend an Otis Rush concert, and for the first time saw a path forward. She began going to as many blues shows as possible, soaking up the sounds of her favorite blues and soul artists. While working as an intern at a recording studio, she was approached by her boss to sing some supporting vocals on a track. Finding her voice, she soon began working regularly as a background singer. By the early 1980s, Magness made her way to Phoenix and befriended Bob Tate, the musical director for the great Sam Cooke. With Tate’s mentoring, she formed her first band, Janiva Magness And The Mojomatics, and before too long the influential Phoenix New Times named her group the city’s Best Blues Band.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and slowly began finding work. She married musician and songwriter Jeff Turmes, with whom she recorded It Takes One To Know One in 1997. After three more independent releases, Janiva signed with Northern Blues and recorded Bury Him At The Crossroads in 2004 and Do I Move You? in 2006. Both CDs were co-produced by Magness along with Canadian roots star Colin Linden, and both garnered Magness a massive amount of critical and popular attention. Magness and Linden won the prestigious Canadian Maple Blues Award for Producers Of The Year for Bury Him At The Crossroads in 2004. Do I Move You? debuted at #8 on the Billboard Blues Chart and was the #1 Blues CD Of The Year in 2006 on Living Blues magazine’s radio chart.

With WHAT LOVE WILL DO and a major U.S. tour planned with more dates and countries to be added, there is no doubt that even more recognition will come Magness’ way. Janiva Magness continues to wring the truth from every note she sings, amazing and delighting both old and new fans all over the world.

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Queen of the Blues Koko Taylor, slide guitar master Lil' Ed Williams and his band, The Blues Imperials and West Side legend Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater all perform at the 25th Annual Chicago Blues Festival, June 5 - 8, 2008. The free festival is held at Chicago's Grant Park.

Taylor will headline the main stage on Friday, June 6. Earlier that evening, Clearwater will take the stage with his road band as well as all the players on his new CD, West Side Strut. Guests include Ronnie Baker Brooks (Lonnie's son, who produced the CD), Lonnie Brooks, Billy Branch, Otis Clay, Jimmy Johnson and others.

Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials take the stage the following night, Saturday, June 7. Ed is currently working on a follow-up to his hugely successful 2006 CD, Rattleshake.

Singer Janiva Magness, whose debut Alligator CD WHAT LOVE WILL DO comes out on June 10, 2008, joins Bobby Rush, Billy Gibson and other blues stars in the first-ever blues tour to entertain troops in Iraq and Kuwait. The first show will be April 1 in Kuwait. There will be two shows in Baghdad’s Green Zone, and two shows in other Iraq cities not revealed for security reasons.

The band will include drummer Tony Braunagel, keyboardist David Torkanowsky, bassist Gary Davenport, and guitarist Zach Zunis. Plans for two more tours of the region are already underway, scheduled for October 2008 and January 2009. Artists for those tours will be announced at a later date.

More information can be found at www.myspace.com/bluzapalooza.

Alligator artists Marcia Ball and Guitar Shorty will perform during this year’s SxSW festival in Austin, Texas on Thursday, March 13. Ball plays the Americana Music Association Showcase at Antone’s at 1:00am (Friday morning). Guitar Shorty plays at Opal Devine’s Freehouse at 11:00pm. Guitar Shorty also plays on Wednesday, March 12 at The Yard Dog as part of the WMNF / Skipper’s Smokehouse day party at 5:30pm.

Ball’s new CD, PEACE, LOVE & BBQ, comes out on April 8. Ball recently recorded with her friend Irma Thomas on Irma’s upcoming Rounder Records CD, Simply Grand. USA Today called Ball, “A sensational, saucy singer and superb pianist….where Texas stomp-rock and Louisiana blues-swamp meet."

Guitar Shorty’s latest CD, WE THE PEOPLE, has been hailed as the best of his long, storied career. Texas Music recently said, “Give him a guitar, a stage and room to run, and Guitar Shorty will entertain you something fierce.”

Alligator recording artists Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women (Ann Rabson, Gaye Adegbalola, and Andra Faye) are the subject of a new documentary film entitled Hot Flash. The film will screen at the Bermuda International Film Festival on Wednesday, April 2 and again on Saturday, April 5. Directed by Sarah Knight and produced by Barbara Ghammashi, the film follows the storied career of the multi-racial trio of middle-aged women who abandoned their day jobs to pursue their love of the blues – and found success along the way. All three members are accomplished musicians who combine sharp original material with reinterpretations of blues classics.

Saffire has eight CDs to their credit, and are planning a new release in 2009. In addition to their large audience of blues lovers, Saffire has built a substantial following outside of the blues world, forged by their message of empowerment for women and their ribald sense of humor. Hot Flash showcases Saffire’s enthusiastic performance style and focuses on their long-time message, “You’re never too old to pursue your passions.”

Bassist/vocalist and Stray Cat Lee Rocker will appear on Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour on March 22. Lee will be interviewed and will perform songs from his recent Alligator CD, BLACK CAT BONE. The show will air on over 400 radio stations in the U.S. and abroad. It will also air on XM Satellite Radio 15, “The Village,” on April 13.