Legends of the Blues Concerts
Legends of the Blues VII
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Doors open at 6:30pm; concert begins at 7:30pm
Byrnes Performing Arts Center
18821 Crown Ridge Blvd. Arlington, WA
Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door; youth 12 and under are free.
Tickets available at Brownpapertickets.com
and at Flowers by George, 335 N. Olympic Ave, in downtown Arlington.
The award-winning cross-over artist, Janiva Magness will be featured in this year’s seventh annual Legends of the Blues concert in Arlington on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center.
Magness has been nominated for 28 Blues music awards, wrapping up seven wins. She was named Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year in 2015, and is one of only two women to receive the BB King Performer of the Year award.
Magness combines the blues, soul, R&B and country music genres. This fall, she will be celebrating her 15th album, Change in the Weather: Janiva Magness Sings John Fogerty, to be released Sept. 13 by Blue Élan Records. At the nexus of re-invention and tradition, Magness reframes 12 songs from the Creedence Clearwater Revival leader’s catalog in her own soaring, soul-centered style.
During the upcoming 2019/2020 touring season, audiences can anticipate hearing Magness’ top notch four-piece touring band performing songs from the newest Fogerty-related release as well as tunes covering the span of her 40-plus year recording career.
Magness recently published a memoir, “Weeds Like Us,” about growing up in a dozen foster homes after both parents committed suicide. Having earned her rights to the blues, she found salvation and stability in music, thanks to encouragement from her final foster mother. She was originally inspired by legendary bluesman Otis Rush.
Since the early 1990s, Janiva Magness has built an impressive career in American roots music, traveling millions of miles, singing in thousands of clubs and on many festival stages. She continues to raise the bar for contemporary Americana roots music.
In 2016, her album Love Wins Again was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album and all her albums have risen to the top of Billboard’s Roots music charts as well as Americana and Blues radio charts.
Then, with her brilliantly-crafted 14th album, Love is an Army, Magness continued to blend the echoes of classic soul with timeless themes of love and protest.
Arlington is fortunate to host this impressive performer.
Opening act
Opening the Nov. 23 Legends of the Blues VII concert, the NW All Star Blues Broads features six award-winning female musicians, singers and songwriters joining forces from across the Pacific Northwest to bring rhythm, blues and soul to life on the BPAC stage. The broads include Seattle native Stacy Jones, the winner of Best Harmonica, Best Vocalist, Best Songwriter, Best Band and Best Album by the WA Blues Society. She has toured across the U.S. and Europe, sharing the stage with many of her blues idol legends. On bass, the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame member and 2015 and 2016 Blues Foundation Award winner for Best Bassist, Lisa Mann’s voice effortlessly straddles the line between the honey-sweet warmth of the south and the force-of-nature sound she's cultivated by mastering rock and roll to Memphis soul. On guitar, Sonny Hess was the first woman nominated by Cascade Blues Association for Best Lead Guitar and she has been nominated for "Lifetime Achievement Award.” A singer, player and a composer, Hess has opened for Etta James, Jr. Walker, Average White Band, Bobby Womack and she produced a NW Women R&B show. On keys is WA Blues Society Award winner Sheri Roberts Greimes, a vocal powerhouse who blends the sounds and styles of soul and country rock into “blues you can feel." The ensemble’s drummer, Faith Stankevich was raised as a tap dancer to the tunes of Muddy Waters. From circus gigs to punk rock, she has been performing in Seattle and around the globe for over 25 years with some of the region’s most accomplished musicians. An eclectic saxophonist and recipient of the Bob Summerise Summy Award for Blues Woman of the Yea, Sheryl Clark is a middle school music educator who has played for Tony Bennett, David Brubeck, Marlena Shaw, The Ventures and Dianne Schurr.
The concert is supported by a City of Arlington Lodging Tax Grant to promote tourism.
How to go
Tickets to Legends of the Blues VII are $20 at BrownPaperTickets.com or at Flowers by George, 335 N. Olympic Ave. in downtown Arlington, and $25 at the door, at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center at Arlington High School, 18821 Crown Ridge Blvd. Youth under 12 enter for free. Doors open at 6 p.m.; concert begins at 7:30 p.m.