Mountain Blog

Check out this review for Janiva Magness' latest CD, "What Will Love Do" from Harp Magazine's Blurt-online.

"Detroit-born Janiva Magness stands out as far above the competition. The dearth of truly captivating contemporary blues artists with something distinctive to offer beyond a retro rehash or a tepid “update” is the situation to which Magness' music responds so directly. Just as she did with her excellent 2006 album, Move You, Magness brings vibrance, viscerality, guts, and plain unadulterated soul to her Alligator debut, What Love Will Do."

Thanks to Tim at Alligator records for spotting this great review. Read the whole thing here.

Janiva is bringing the "plain unadulterated soul" at to Mountain Stage on August 31 here in Charleston. Tickets are available here.

See You in Charleston!

With commercial radio basically resting calmly in a state of artistic complacency, getting a "hit song" these days has more to do with I-tunes sales and advertising licensing than it does with charts and airplay. Luckily, over here on the public radio side of things, and especially at Mountain Stage, we're willing to put these folks on the radio (though it may not be at the same time every hour, like the other end of the FM spectrum).

Case in point: Sharon Little, who'll visit us in Charleston this weekend. This sultry chanteuse has gone from weary waitress to satellite-searing second bill on the expansive Raising Sand tour featuring Alison Krauss, Robert Plant and T Bone Burnett.

Her song "Spaceship" has already been used in a segment of the CBS series Numb3rs, and "Follow That Sound," a hypnotic soul-funk number, was featured on crime-drama NCIS. So if that can be compared to a Top 40 Hit, then having a song chosen as the theme for a show, as "Follow" recently was for the new Benjamin Bratt series on A&E "The Cleaner" must be like breaking the Top 10. Heck, you can even get the tune on your cell-phone. Just please be sure to silence it at the Cultural Center theater this Sunday.

See you there!