Janiva Magness

Back For Me

Blue ‘Elan Records

With “Back For Me,” seven-times Blues Music Awards winner Janiva Magness continues to renew and redefine her widely celebrated relationship with the music on a powerfully engaging, emotionally rich collection. Produced by her longtime guitarist and collaborator Dave Darling, the album is a treasure chest of lesser-known gems by well-known artists.

It’s the 17th album for Magness, the BMA’s 2019 B.B. King Artist of the Year, and a Grammy Awards Contemporary Blues nominee. It follows the 2019 publication of her memoir “Weeds Like Us,” which vividly portrayed her traumas of both her parents suicide and her often nightmarish experiences in the foster care system. Darling anchors the album’s core band of bassist Ian Walker; drummer W.F. Quinn Smith; keyboardists Sasha Smith and Phil Parlapiano; guitarists John Schroeder, Robert “Chalo” Ortiz, and Nick Mayberry; and harmonica player TJ Norton.

The album opens with “Masterpiece,” written by Darling, with Norton on harp and special guest Joe Bonamassa on lead guitar, as we get to hear Magness’ beautiful voice as she sings, “There are a lot of mistakes, but your my favorite masterpiece.”. “Back For Me”, was written by Casey Lee Hurt, Eric Schultz, and Kelly Keith Brenden “Come back for love, come back for me. I apologize. I’m the one with hell to pay. I know your going to leave, but I’ll be right here when you come back for me.”.

“The Same Love That Made Me Laugh” was written by Bill Withers in 1974; featured is Parlapiano on organ, “Your love is like a chunk of gold, hard and cold, and hard to hold…the same love that made me laugh, made me cry.”. On “November,” written in 2016 by Doyle Bramhall II and Renee K. Zellweger, Schroeder is on guitar, as Magness’ chimes, “Oh, I wish I could go back again for a moment…so many tears, sometimes I can’t breathe…November comes with a bittersweet memory.”.

The rockin’ “Holes,” written by Julianne Marie Guidi, features guitarists Sue Foley and John Schroeder: “What you think of that hole, you keep working that shovel; your bound to meet the devil. If you don’t get out of this place, there is going to be trouble.”. “I Was Good To You Baby” was written by David Egan and Buddy Flett in 2007. “Don’t waste your time calling me tomorrow; when you wake up, I’ll be gone… I was good to you, baby; you’ll find out someday maybe; just might drive you crazy,” with some great slide guitar from Schroeder.

“You Can Bring Me Flowers” was written by Ray La Montague in 2006: “If you feel the need to go, I won’t stand in your way. You can bring me flowers, baby, when I’m dead and gone,” with “Chalo” and Parlapiano on the organ and Hammond B-3. “Down So Low” is from Tracy Nelson, written in 1968: “when you went away…I cried for so long, When I wanted you to stay, that was so
wrong…but it’s not losing you that’s got me down so low; I just can’t find another man to take your place.”.

“Do I Need You,” written in 2015 by Gayle Arendt, Ann Peebles, Don Bryant, and Darryl Carter, is another breath-taking vocal from Magness’ as she chants, “I don’t know if I’m ready for the love you want to give…tell me do, do, do, I need you?”. The closer “Hittin’ On Nothin'” written by Allen Tousaint under the pseudonym Naomi Neville, was a hit for Irma Thomas in 1989. Featured are Jesse Dayton, guitar; the piano of Smith; and the backing vocals of Bernie Barlow and Allen Sovory. “You ain’t hittin’ on Nothin, unless you got something for me.”.

While in recent years Janiva Magness has stepped forward more as a songwriter, this collection echoes her early career strengths as an interpreter of others’ songs. On “Back For Me,” Magness is rejoicing in how far she’s come in her life, with the knowledge of how she got here. Magness goes back and reconnects and renews some emotional things deep within. She states, “I’m happier in my life…than I’ve ever been…it doesn’t mean the experience of heartbreak in these songs goes away…it just lives in a different spot.”. It’s been a bittersweet journey.

Richard Ludmerer

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