Recorded over two nights at the Union Chapel, London back in July 2018, Mavis Staples treats us to a wonderful cover of the Talking Heads classic 'Slippery People'. She's been performing it for quite a few years now and it never fails to delight.
The new 'Live In London' album is her first live album for a decade and predominately spotlights the music she has been releasing the past few years alongside Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.
Mavis Staples is aged 79 (she'll hit the #80 in July) and she continues to play live shows and record new music. Ain't no stopping this lady!
The Weight - Mavis Staples with Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
2017 was a busy year for Mavis Staples. She has recorded with Arcade Fire, Gorrilaz, Benjamin Booker, toured on her own and recently with Bob Dylan. She has also taken the time to record a brand new release with Jeff Tweedy (offering up Production duties again as well as writing/co-writing the album). And next year there are plans afoot for her to record an album with Bob Dylan! At aged 78 there's no slowing this old girl down!
If All I Was Was Black is Staples' third collaboration with Tweedy. Their 2010 album You Are Not Alone took home a Grammy for Best Americana Album, and their second effort One True Vine earned a nomination of its own. If All I Was Was Black, however, marks the first time Tweedy has written an entire set of original songs for Staples - songs that take an unflinching look at the dire state of the divided nation of America.
"Nothing has changed,"Staples said in August, just days before white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Va., where they murdered Heather Heyer. "We are still in it."
If All I Was Was Black finds Staples and Tweedy united in addressing the disconnect in the USA. "We’re not loving one another the way we should," said Staples. "Some people are saying they want to make the world great again, but we never lost our greatness. We just strayed into division." Said Tweedy, "I’ve always thought of art as a political statement in and of itself—that it was enough to be on the side of creation and not destruction. But there is something that feels complicit at this moment in time about not facing what is happening in this country head on."
A companion album to If All I Was Was Black I would say is American Fall - Anti-Flag. It was released a couple of weeks before the Mavis Staples album and whilst dealing with some similar themes Anti-Flag bring the boot and the venom whilst Mavis brings the love and the more positive outlook! I think with these two records you find the different ways of dealing with the dark days of living under the Presidency of Trump! The anger, aggression etc of Anti-Flag's American Fall gets people's blood boiling and they confront, possibly get violent and sadly the message of wanting change can get lost amid the carnage. On the other hand the gentle, soulful approach taken by Staples and Tweedy in the songs on If All I Was Was Black demonstrate the need for understanding, for finding unity, for building each other up rather than seeking to destroy one another. There's recognition that there are differences between black and white communities but that they can work together for change. The path to change presented by Staples/Tweedy to my mind at least seems to be the better option as it opens doors, builds bridges rather than kicking up a storm that is likely to close ears, shut doors and continue the disconnect.
Just incase you assume that this album and the issues it raises are just an American thing, well you would be wrong. Read the papers here in the UK and Europe, turn on the news and you will see and hear that this disconnect is thriving where we live also! As Staples sings in No Time For Crying, "We've got work to do!".
If All I Was Was Black - Mavis Staples
Anti-
Produced by Jeff Tweedy
Released 17th November 2017
Tracklist and Songwriters
1. "Little Bit"Jeff Tweedy 2. "If All I Was Was Black"Tweedy, Mavis Staples 3. "Who Told You That"Tweedy 4. "Ain't No Doubt About It" (featuring Jeff Tweedy)Tweedy 5. "Peaceful Dream"Tweedy 6. "No Time for Crying"Tweedy, Staples 7. "Build a Bridge"Tweedy 8. "We Go High"Tweedy, Staples 9. "Try Harder"Tweedy 10. "All Over Again"Tweedy
Personnel Mavis Staples - vocals Jeff Tweedy - guitar, bass, percussion, vocals Spencer Tweedy - drums, percussion Rick Holmstrom - guitar Jeff Turnes - bass Stephen Hodges - drums, percussion Donny Gerrard - backing vocals Glen Kotsche - percussion Scott Ligon - clavinet, piano, organ, Wurly, guitar
I took a bit of a shine to the music of Rhiannon Giddens a couple of years back without connecting the fact that she was a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Seeing her singing St. James Infirmary Blues with Tom Jones on Jools Holland's Hootenanny was also another fine moment (as were her performances of Waterboy and Up Above My Head) .
Rhiannon was named as the Folk Singer of The Year for 2016 at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Along with her band Carolina Chocolate Drops she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2016.
Her Debut Solo album Tomorrow Is My Turn was a real delight. Her second album came out last week and it's a continuation of her wonderful sound bringing together strains of Folk, Gospel, Soul, and Americana.
Absolutely love the title track of this one. It was originally done by The Staple Singers back in the 1960's. Mavis Staples still gets to sing it from time to time, and still sounds fabulous!
1959 Original Cover for both the US and UK release.
In the US it was released on Vee Jay Records and in the UK on the Joy Special label.
No particular reason to post this today except to say I was listening to some early tunes by The Staple Singers on the brilliant Faith and Grace: A Family Journey 1953-1976 boxset last night (and it's worth checking out) and thought it would be nice to post something that's a bit different from the normal guitars and drums crashing.
Uncloudy Day album was released in 1959 and was a compilation of some of their earlier singles for Vee Jay Records. The title track was their debut single in 1956 that was a surprising hit.
Mississippi Records(US)
2014 Reissue Cover
The picture was originally the cover for their 1961 album Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
I've tried in the past number of days to turn the spotlight on some quality ladies in the world of music and continue today with one of my favourite singers who has been singing since she was 11 years old and is still making music 65 years later! I recently posted about her latest album Livin' On A High Note. Mavis Staples was born 11th July 1939 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples was the youngest of 14 children in Mississippi who had as a younger man grown up playing Blues Guitar with Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House. He had dropped out of school after the eight grade and had begun to sing in a Gospel group before getting married and moving to Chicago. Once in the Windy City he set about working in Construction, Steel Mills and Meat Packers to support his family. In 1948 along with his wife they started The Staple Singers.
Mavis began singing with them in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, theStaples scored a hit in 1956 with "Uncloudy Day" for the Vee-Jay label. When Mavis graduated from what is now Paul Robeson High School in 1957, The Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples on guitar and including the voices of Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Purvis, the Staples were called "God's Greatest Hitmakers." The Staple Singers evolved from popular Gospel singers to become the most spectactular and influential spiritualy-based group in America. In the 1960's they became the spiritual and musical voices of the Civil Rights Movement due to Pops' close friendship with Martin Luther King. Into the 1970's The Staple Singers had hits with songs like Respect Yourself, I'll Take You There, Let's Do It Again and If You're Ready (Come Go With Me) to name but a few. For her solo career it's been an interesting journey: her debut album was released on Stax in 1969, and a couple of duet singles also on Stax with Eddie Floyd and William Bell. The singles also appeared on a 1969 Duets album called Boy Meets Girl, ten of the 22 tracks feature Mavis Staples singing with Bell, Floyd and Johnnie Taylor. In 1977 she made a Soundtrack album for the film A Piece of the Action, that was produced by Curtis Mayfield. At the end of the 80's and into the 90's she even made a couple of albums that Prince produced: Time Waits For No One and The Voice. Spirituals & Gospel - Dedicated To Mahalia Jackson with Lucky Peterson was released in 1996 and would be her last album for 8 years!
In 2004 she returned with a really great album Have A Little Faith. In the next twelve years she would be releasing some of her finest music to date. First was the album spotlighted below, We'll Never Turn Back. A wonderful concept album with a clear theme of the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. The album won a lot of fans, especially among the critics (surprisingly!).
You Are Not Alone (2010) and One True Vine (2013) produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco are in my mind some of the best music she's done in decades.
You may think reading this that today I'm in the mood for the music of Old People! Mavis Staples is 76 years old and is still making great music. Her last two albums were produced by Jeff Tweedy and for her latest she's gathered up a wealth of fine songwriters to get across the message that she's still Livin' on a High Note! I still have a lot of time for her music old or new. Anyway, have a listen, there's so nice tunes on it.
(Photo by Chris Strong All Rights Reserved)
Tracklist and the Songwriters
01 Take Us Back (Benjamin Booker) 02 Love and Trust (Ben Harper) 03 If It's a Light (The Head & the Heart) 04 Action (tUnE-yArds) 05 High Note (Valerie June) 06 Don't Cry (M. Ward) 07 Tomorrow (Aloe Blacc/John Batiste) 08 Dedicated (Justin Vernon/M.Ward) 09 History Now (Neko Case) 10 One Love (Son Little) 11 Jesus Lay Down Beside Me (Nick Cave) 12 MLK Song (M. Ward / Martin Luther King)
Following on from the Grammy winning 'You Are Not Alone', Mavis Staples has teamed up again with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy for a new collection of tunes. It will be released on 24th June. If it's anything like it's predecessor it's going to be a real cracker of an album.
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