For more than six decades, Mavis Staples has posessed one of music's most powerful and iconic voices, equal parts gospel, soul and R&B. Recently, however, Staples has expanded into new sonic territory, starting with 2007's We'll Never Turn Back, featuring a new backing band anchored by guitarist Rick Holmstrom that integrated blues, funk and rock into her sound.
Three years later, Staples teamed up with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on You Are Not Alone (2010), garnering Staples her first Grammy award. Her second collaboration with Tweedy, One True Vine (2013), features the same roots-rock vibe, but traverses darker terrain.
"All these songs are me," Staples says about One True Vine. "but in a different way, with a different sound. The phrasing, the tempos, the arrangements are different, but the messages are the same things I've been saying down through the years. They're about the world today…and making it feel better through these songs."
Staples brought her live act to Alice Tully Hall last night as part of Lincoln Center's ongoing White Light Festival, the sole non-classical gig on this year's lineup. (Past festivals have offered everyone from Antony and the Johnsons, to members of Portishead and Goldfrapp.) Performing with Holmstrom, bassist Jeff Turmes, drummer Stephen Hodges, and singers Vicki Randle, Donny Gerard and older sister Yvonne, Staples ran through a set that blended songs from throughout her catalog.
Staples, who turned 75 in July, was a larger-than-life presence, with all of the charisma of a Baptist preacher. Still, she seemed to be struggling for much of her eighty-minute set, coughing and rasping throughout. (Staples took a 15 minute break in the middle of the show while Holmstrom, Turmes and Hodges played an instrumental medley.) Her sister, Yvonne, sang through a few numbers at the start, but spent the remainder of the show on a chair behind Hodges' drumkit.
A highlight of the evening was her megawatt performance of Pops Staples' "Freedom's Highway", which she told us he wrote in 1965 for the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march.
"I was there!" Staples shouted. "I am a witness! I am a soldier, and I'm still on the battlefield! I'm fighting for love, for hope, for peace…"
Staples ended the night with her two #1 hits with the Staple Singers: "Let's Do It Again" and the ubiquitous "I'll Take You There", to which she had all of us singing along.
"We've been taking you there for 64 years!" she shouted at the end before walking along the apron to shake hands with everyone in the front row. Staples might not have had her best stuff last night, but there's no questioning her dedication or showmanship.
More pics on the photo page. Set list below.
- "Woke Up This Morning"
- "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield)
- "Eyes on the Prize"
- "I Like The Things About Me"
- "Respect Yourself"
- "One True Vine"
- "Holy Ghost"
- 'Freedom's Highway"
- "We're Gonna Make It"
- "Let's Do It Again"
- "I'll Take You There"