Mavis Staples

One Liner: A Queen of classic R&B somehow on this poster.

Wikipedia Genre: R&B, Soul, Gospel, Americana

Home: Chicago

Poster Position: LARGE Type 
Sunday.

Thoughts:  Another deeply weird addition to this poster right here.  Wedged between a bunch of Nashville acolytes hollering about beer and hot chicks and red dirt, you get one of the Queens of R&B and gospel wandering in here.  83 years old!  She was part of the Staples Singers, and since then has collaborated with everyone from Ray Charles to Prince to David Byrne to Hozier to Aretha Franklin to Arcade Fire to Van Morrison to Dan Auerbach to Bob Dylan.  She has a freaking Grammy Lifetime Achievement award, for crying out loud.  One of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, per Rolling Stone.  In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  A Kennedy Center Honoree.  Gospel Hall of Fame and Blues Hall of Fame, respectively.  She is legitimately a huge act, and yet she's tucked among the Clay Walkers and Tracy Byrds in some weird world.

So, obviously, she got started with the family band, The Staples Singers.  If you don't immediately recognize the name, you absolutely know some of their top songs.  They originally were performing at churches and a local radio show in Chicago, before they scored a hit in 1956 with "Uncloudy Day."  That old album absolutely sounds like a gospel family band, recorded in a shed somewhere.  After a handful of gospel and cover albums of folk songs (?!?), they became the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s with several of those folky tunes, like "For What It's Worth," "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," and "The Weight."  They hit the top forty eight times in this stage, including two number ones.  "I'll Take You There" is the top one of those, released in 1972, and rolling up 135.1 million streams since then.

Absolutely classic.  And it has been used in countless movies, commercials, samples, shows, and everything else since then.  Rolling Stone ranked it as the 276th best song of all time.  That funky groove in the back is money in the bank.  "Let's Do It Again" was their other top hit.

Her 1969 solo debut is a powerfully sung mix of soul and R&B songs, and it doesn't appear that she wrote any of them.  It's the immediately recognizable tunes that have the most streams - "Son of a Preacher Man," "You Send Me," and "A House is Not a Home."  It is a really nice album - solid musicianship behind her and a voice that is immediately noticeable.  1970's Only for the Lonely has a great cover, with a closeup on her eye with a teardrop rolling down her face.  That album also boasts her top streamer until her later career renaissance, with "I Have Learned to Do Without You."  3.8 million streams.

Rolling along with that bass line and those strings, this is a lovely one that again showcases her voice.  Big gap after that one, until 1979's Oh What a Feeling, which has more of a disco flair than the first two albums, it is pretty groovy!  Then another ten year break before 1989's Time Waits for No One, which legit has no streams.  Two tracks have barely over 1,000, and the others have no listed streams.  Weird.  After that, a few albums of religious songs (and also, it looks like some of her albums are not on Spotify, likely some label issues or something) before some more gospel/civil rights tunes.  In the midst of that, she sang the theme song for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Nice!  In my opinion, her resurgence happened in 2010 with You Are Not Alone, when she kind of leaned into the elder Stateswoman of soul thing.  She won the Best Americana Album Grammy with that album, which was a product of a collaboration with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy.  It has a little bit of the Americana rootsy sound of Wilco, but with Staples' weathered voice on top.  The top tune is the title song, with 4.4 million streams.

Lovely, right?  After this one, she did another album with Tweedy on the instruments again, 2013's One True Vine, which ended up as her highest charting album.  The top tune on there is great, funky and soulful while sounding like something from a Wilco and Black Keys influenced band.  "Can You Get to That."  Just over 2 million streams.

[Deepest voice of all time except for the Oak Ridge Boys]: "I wanna know."  Next, she shifted her indie rockers and worked with M. Ward on 2016's Livin' on a High Note.  A good album - very enjoyable tunes and her voice is still nice (even if not as powerful as it once was).  She apparently wasn't into it though, and went back to Tweedy for 2017's If All I Was Was Black.  Then she must have thought better about Tweedy, because she hooked up with Ben Harper for 2019's We Get By.  Most of the songs on these albums are chill, a little slight funkiness to them, but mostly relaxed Adult Alternative type tunes. And they are very good - I don't know of another 83-year old former R&B/soul/gospel singer who is out here making music like this right now.  Dolly is 75, but she is still generally doing country stuff.  Same with Willie.   Finally, Mavis put out Carry Me Home, with Levon Helm (of the Band) on every song.

We'll see how the schedule shakes out, as I have to see Clay Walker over anyone but Tyler on this day, but if I could see Staples do her thing, I'd love to witness it in person.