The Legendary Mavis Staples


Soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples possesses one of the most recognizable and treasured voices in contemporary music. From her early days sharing lead vocals with her groundbreaking family group, The Staple Singers, to her powerful solo recordings, Mavis Staples is an inspirational force in modern popular culture and music.

Faith Comes Through
A 40-year-plus veteran of the music scene - a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and one of “100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll” - Staples (both with The Staple Singers and on her own) is responsible for blazing a rhythm & blues trail while never relinquishing her gospel roots.

Her voice has influenced artists from Bob Dylan to Prince (who dubbed her "the epitome of soul") and she has appeared with everyone from the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Bill Cosby, Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton, to Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Santana and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and has recorded with Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Aretha Franklin, Marty Stuart and many others.

Her new CD Live: Hope at the Hideout (nominated Best Contemporary Blues Album) was recorded in June of this year at the Hideout Club in Chicago.
This small capacity venue created an intimate setting for her rhythm and blues styling. Mavis may be 69 years old, but she has lost none of her vocal power and energy. She not only sings, but also in a real way preaches her message.
There is a purity to this release. She is backed only by a basic three-piece group and back-up singers, which puts the focus squarely on her vocals.
From the opening notes of the classic song, “For What It’s Worth,” you quickly realize you are in for a treat. Her phrasing, vocal quality, and range give the song new meaning and vibrancy. When she sings, “Paranoia strikes deep,” you can’t help but sit up and listen.

Five of the twelve tracks were taken from her 2007 album, We’ll Never Turn Back, which was produced by Ry Cooder. This was an album that reached back to her civil rights roots and it is a treat to hear her perform some of these songs live. “Eyes On The Prize,” “Down In Mississippi,” and “We Shall Not Be Moved” are performed by an artist who has lived and experienced the songs. She brings an honesty to them which serves to heighten their emotional impact.
Her three-song encore begins with an introduction of one of the first songs she learned. “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” is a gospel-based tour de force. She ends with her hit “I’ll Take You There.”

Her new CD Have A Little Faith (Alligator), is a stirring collection of uplifting, gospel-rooted songs deeply seated in her faith and spirituality. Produced by Jim Tullio and Staples, the album features the strongest collection of material - both originals and interpretations - Mavis has ever assembled. Have A Little Faith takes listeners deep into the heart of the singer Vibe magazine called "one of pop's most distinctive voices." Of releasing her music on Alligator, known worldwide for its blues releases, Mavis says, "Blues and gospel are cousins. They're very closely related. Both styles of music lift you up from what's keeping you down."

Back in the Day
Mavis began her career with her family group in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples' scored a hit in 1956 with "Uncloudy Day" for the VeeJay label. When Mavis graduated 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 Cleo, Yvonne, and Pervis, the Staples were called "God's Greatest Hitmakers."

With Mavis' voice and Pops' songs, singing, and guitar playing, the Staples evolved from enormously popular gospel singers (with recordings on United and Riverside as well as VeeJay) to become the most spectacular and influential spiritually-based group in America.
By the mid-1960's The Staple Singers, inspired by Pops' close friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. They covered contemporary pop hits with positive messages, including Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and a version of Stephen Stills' "For What It's Worth." The Staples sang "message" songs like "Long Walk To D.C." and "When Will We Be Paid?," bringing their moving and articulate music to a huge number of young people.

The group signed to Stax Records in 1968, joining their gospel harmonies and deep faith with musical accompaniment from members of Booker T. and the MGs.
The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975, including two #1 singles, "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again," and a #2 single "Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?" Now a long ways from their early roots as a pure gospel group, The Staple Singers were bona fide pop stars.

The Voice Solo
Mavis Staples recorded her first solo album, Mavis Staples for the famed Stax label in 1969. After another Stax release, Only For the Lonely, in 1970, she released a soundtrack album, A Piece of the Action, on Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label. A 1984 album (also self-titled) preceded two albums under the direction of rock megastar Prince; 1989's Time Waits For No One, followed by 1993's The Voice, which People magazine named to its Top Ten Albums of 1993.
Her following release, 1996's Spirituals & Gospels: A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson recorded with keyboardist Lucky Peterson, is a moving song cycle honoring Jackson, a very close family friend and a huge influence on Mavis' life.

Recently completed work on We'll Never Turn Back, the most personal and polemical album of her career. Set for April 24 release, the album was produced by Ry Cooder, and marks Mavis' debut for Anti- Records.
We'll Never Turn Back combines raw, emotional, contemporized versions of some of the freedom songs that provided the soundtrack to the civil rights movement of the 1950s/60s, along with other traditional songs, and new originals written by Mavis and Ry.
With We'll Never Turn Back, Mavis Staples has come full circle, singing songs that were seminal to a movement and time that helped form her as an artist. Alongside songs that were inextricably part of the Civil Rights movement, many of them associated with the Freedom Singers, Mavis co-wrote the title track with producer and guitarist extraordinaire Ry Cooder, sings a Cooder original, "I'll Be Rested," and opens the CD with a cover of bluesman J.B. Lenoir's "Down in Mississippi," connecting the disc to her own roots down South.

For many artists, such a project would be an exercise in recreating period pieces in much the same way that museums present the past as freeze-frame tableaux. Mavis takes a different path, personalizing the record, ad libbing spoken and sung commentary on several songs, connecting the lyrics to her own life, her family and, perhaps most tellingly, to the very real issues of today. Ry Cooder with the help of his son Joaquin, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Mike Elizando, many of the original Freedom Singers and South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, creates soundscapes for Mavis' deep-in-the-well, heart felt vocals that redefines much of the material while simultaneously casting it in a rich, vibrant deeply rooted past.

During her career Staples has appeared in many films and television shows, including The Last Waltz, Graffiti Bridge, Wattstax, New York Undercover, Soul Train, Soul to Soul and The Cosby Show.

Mavis has recorded with a wide variety of musicians, from her close friend Bob Dylan (with whom she as nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award in the "Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals" category for their duet on "Gotta Change My Way Of Thinking" from the album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan) to The Band, Ray Charles, Nona Hendryx, George Jones, Natalie Merchant, Ann Peebles, Delbert McClinton and many others. She has provided vocals on current albums by Los Lobos and Dr. John, and she appears on recent tribute albums to Johnny Paycheck, Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan.

A Bright Time Ahead
Her importance in both the music world and as a driving force of social change makes her a true icon - an artist who continues to create music that will inspire a whole new generation of people to have faith in the healing and uplifting power of her remarkable gift.


official website: www.mavisstaples.com