Janiva Magness - Love Is an Army (2018)

After Janiva Magness added a 2016 Grammy nomination to her 27 Blues Music Award nominations-with seven wins, including Entertainer of the Year-she might have taken at least a short rest on her laurels. Instead, one of the preeminent voices in contemporary American roots music has raised the bar for herself. Magness' fourteenth album, Love Is an Army, is a brilliantly crafted bridge between the past and present, blending the echoes of classic soul and country music with timeless themes of love and the very contemporary sound of protest. Love Is an Army's dozen songs reverberate with the timeless character of the Memphis rhythm & blues patented by the Stax and Hi Records studios, especially in tracks like "Back to Blue," which opens the album and sets it's tone, and "Hammer," which features Grammy Winner and multiple Blues Music Awards winner Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica. Another Tennessee music city, Nashville, is the geographic touchstone for the title number, a duet with Texas singer / songwriter Bryan Stephens, and for "On and On," with Poco frontman Rusty Young on pedal steel guitar. Like Magness, both Stephens and Young are on Blue Elan Records. Other guest artists include the legendary R&B singer Delbert McClinton, Mississippi hill country blues torchbearer Cedric Burnside, bluegrass guitar and banjo virtuoso Courtney Hartman of the band Della Mae.