Name: Bury Him at the Crossroads [Digipak]
Brand: Redeye Music Distribution
SKU: 1144822
Price: 12.87 USD
Availability: InStock

Bury Him at the Crossroads [Digipak]

Rating

Album: Bury Him at the Crossroads [Digipak]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Woman Knows, A
2)	Whale Has Swallowed Me, The
3)	Everything Gonna Be Alright
4)	Lost and Lookin'
5)	Wasn't That Enough
6)	Soul of a Man, The
7)	That's No Way to Get Along
8)	Bury Him at the Crossroads
9)	One More Heartache
10)	I'm Leaving You
11)	Less and Less of You
12)	Ain't Lost Nothin'
13)	Eat the Lunch You Brought

Album: Bury Him at the Crossroads [Digipak]
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Woman Knows, A
2)	Whale Has Swallowed Me, The
3)	Everything Gonna Be Alright
4)	Lost and Lookin'
5)	Wasn't That Enough
6)	Soul of a Man, The
7)	That's No Way to Get Along
8)	Bury Him at the Crossroads
9)	One More Heartache
10)	I'm Leaving You
11)	Less and Less of You
12)	Ain't Lost Nothin'
13)	Eat the Lunch You Brought

Performer Notes

Personnel: Janiva Magness (vocals, background vocals); Janiva Magness; Jeff Turmes (guitar, banjo, baritone saxophone, bass guitar); Richard Bell (piano, Hammond b-3 organ); Colin Linden (guitar, background vocals); Stephen Hodges (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixer: Colin Linden.
Recording information: Mad Dog Studios, Burbank, CA.
Photographers: Janiva Magness; Jeff Dunas.
Magness, who won a 2004 W.C. Handy Award as Best Contemporary Blues Female Artist, seems cut from the same mold as singers like Lou Ann Barton -- there's a lovely rasp and conviction in her singing that brings sometimes mundane material alive. Working with a small band this time around, she can focus more on her singing, rather than becoming lost in the arrangements, and, in fact, it's the acoustic material here that serves her best, such as the interpretation of J.B. Lenoir's "The Whale Has Swallowed Me." At times the ensemble (which features Colin Linden on guitar) sounds a bit like a very professional bar band, but Magness has the class to cut through that and take it all a notch higher. The title track -- presumably a reference to Robert Johnson -- is a beautiful piece of work, haunting in its simplicity, and "The Soul of a Man" shows that the line between blues and soul is blurred indeed (and you could add gospel into that mix). It would be good to hear her with more classic material -- a lot of the songs here are good, but not completely memorable. However, there's no doubt that she deserves her award, and her future looks justifiably rosy. ~ Chris Nickson

Professional Reviews

Living Blues (p.63) - "Magness' vocals are classy....It is obvious that Magness' modern crooning is adaptive to any form of roots music."