LOS ANGELES, Calif. – If blues and soul singer Janiva Magness’s new album comes off a little strong, that’s because she’s not holding back anymore. “Stronger for It” starts out with the song “There it Is,” a song Magness wrote about being so angry at someone you want to kill them. “There’s a difference between thinking about doing something and taking action,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning from Los Angeles. “You just want to do more than slap them. I’m just putting it out there.” Magness is the headlining act July 6 at the Central Park Glover Pavilion, downtown Warsaw, for the free Blues & BBQ Festival. She performs at 8 p.m., with opening act Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers performing at 6 p.m. Magness wrote three of the songs on “Stronger for It.” She said it’s not really a songwriting debut album for her, but it’s been quite a while –1997 – since the last time she tried writing her own tunes for an album. “It was just time,” she said. “I was encouraged by my producer and others around me to write. It was just time.” Another track Magness penned is “Whistlin’ in the Dark.” “It was something I’ve been doing since I was a kid,” she said. “It got me through the bad times.” The third track is “I Won’t Cry.” Part of the lyrics state, “I get cut, I might bleed, but I won’t cry.” “It’s a song about resolve,” she said. Other songs on the album were written by artists like Tom Waits, Shelby Lynne, Ike Turner and Buddy and Julie Miller. “I never want to make the same record twice,” she said. “I always want to push forward cause that is my nature. People recognize this in my work. I do what damn well pleases me. The blues and soul please me.” Whether she’s singing her own songs or someone else’s, Magness said she brings her own style to each one. “It doesn’t matter where the song came from, I’m going to put my own twist to it,” she said. Magness plays 180 to 200 dates a year. Currently on tour to promote “Stronger for It,” she said the songs the audience will hear at the Warsaw July 6 show will be from the album for the most part. The music listeners hear on the radio from her is what they can expect to hear live, she said. “I have the best band I’ve ever had in my life and I’ve had a lot of bands,” she said. In July and August, she’s taking her blues show throughout the United States, but also will eventually hit Canada and Europe. “The blues is a great American art form,” she said. “I feel grateful to get to do what I want to do, sing some great songs, have a great band, get some applause and get paid on top of that.” No one blues artist has been the most profound impact on Magness, she said, as she’s had many influences, but if she has to pick one, Etta James was the biggest. “She was a real game changer for me,” Magness said. “What a huge, devastating performer she was. No bull****ing, no pretending. She came out on her feet. No faking it. No acting going on. She was really real. When I first experienced that with her, it blew the top of my head off. I began to understand what I was suppose to be doing.” She had similar experiences with other artists like B.B. King. “They were just profound. What a gift for those artists to give everything, to sing like their lives depended on it,” she said. Every time Magness goes out on stage, she tries to hit that mark that those legendary blues and soul artists hit before her. She said, “That’s the job – to connect to the audience. The vehicle is the music. If you pretend, there’s no connection. It is my obligation, my duty to connect. It’s my obligation, my duty to give myself to the audience every time I sing.” When all is said and done, she said maybe someone will feel a connection with her and her music that she felt with James, King and Otis Rush.Music like theirs has helped Magness through her own ups and downs. “I have struggles. A lot of people have them, but I get through them. I keep landing on my feet. I’m more surprised than anyone, and music has been a big part of that,” she said. If you just wait, Magness said the bad times will turn around. One only has to get through them. As a teen, Magness lost both her parents to suicide. She battled drugs and lived on the streets, as well as going in and out of numerous foster homes. She had a child, and gave it up for adoption. In her 12th foster home, Magness finally found the love of a foster mother. Magness is now in her sixth year as a spokesperson for Casey Family Programs and is an ambassador for Foster Care Alumni of America, promoting National Foster Care Month, which is in May. Being a spokesperson and ambassador are two huge honors for her, she said, because someone stood up for her when she was in trouble. “It changed the end game for me,” she said. “I want to inspire more good people to come forward and be foster parents.” During her show, Magness always gives out free information about the organizations and fostering children. “It can be the simplest act of kindness,” she said. “My point of talking about it is, I had 12 placements in two years. I got lucky with the last one. We need to help kids get lucky.” More information about Magness, her music and the organizations she supports can be found online at www.janivamagness.com
