Janiva Magness. WOW!

As a general rule Weisenheimer buys into the notion that live music beats the recorded variety. In the case of Janiva Magness, the CDs are marvelous, and we own several of them, but we learned this week that her live show is mind-bogglingly fantastic.

Magness played at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley Tuesday and Wednesday, turning the place into Smokin' Hot Blues Alley for a couple of nights. And damn, Magness is an incredible talent. A three-time winner of the Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year award from the Blues Foundation, she's up for the award again at the 31st annual Blues Music Awards coming up in Memphis in May. It's easy to see why. Magness has incredible pipes, passion, and range in her singing, and a great stage presence to boot.

I wasn't keeping notes, but a couple of moments stood out. First was the moving ballad "You Were Never Mine" from her 2006 album Do I Move You? Second was a great story she told about Taj Mahal and his opinion about the muscle tone of her arms. Third was the finale of her set, an incredible story about and tribute to Koko Taylor during a rollicking rendition of the classic "Wang Dang Doodle." The tune highlighted Magness' ability to tell a great story, and put on a theatrically great performance, with the band gradually picking up in volume as Janiva described Taylor climbing to the stage for one of her final performances. Taylor, Queen of the Blues, passed away last June. It was an amazing piece and wrapped up one of the most entertaining live music shows Weisenheimer has ever attended. I certainly pitched a wang dang doodle all night long!

Don't despair for missing these shows. Magness will be back in Seattle for a show at Highway 99 Blues Club April 17. Her new album, The Devil is an Angel Too, will be released April 13 on Alligator Records.

Blue Sweetie

My Sweetie, the scorer, and I have been spending quite a bit of time at the Highway 99 Blues Club lately. These days we seem to be listening to more blues than anything else, and we took a blues dancing class through the Northwest Dance Network in the spring. We wound up down at Highway 99 on Halloween night and heard a couple of sets by Lee Oskar.

Weisenheimer has a couple of WAR albums on vinyl (kids, we used to get all of our music that way, and we LIKED it) but never really connected that band with Oskar, who plays regularly at Highway 99, until I Googled him after the show. I suppose I should go back and read all of my 70s albums' liner notes more carefully. Oskar has a kick-ass band and we had a great time.

This portrait of my Sweetie, the scorer, was made with a cell-phone camera during Oskar's set on Halloween. My Sweetie didn't have the blues, but she sure looked blue.