Womad

Mavis Staples

Gospel great and voice of the Civil Rights movement

She may be nearing septuagenarian status, but Mavis Staples currently seems to be in better creative health than she has since her Staples Singers heyday. That's what recording an album with Ry Cooder can do for you - 2007's critically acclaimed, Cooder-produced We'll Never Turn Back saw Mavis re-recording many of the pivotal songs of her gospel youth. Her trademark joyous vocal timbre somehow seems as vital as ever, full of character and history. And when she sings tunes like We Shall Not Be Moved and Jesus Is On The Main Line, it's like a living glimpse into the past. The Staples Singers, of course, were there on the frontline with Martin Luther King Jr, their songs the anthems of the Civil Rights movement in the US. Then, in 1968, the family signed for Stax Records and achieved considerable crossover success, not that Mavis finds any contradiction in the co-existence of the secular and the sacred in her music. "Music is good for the soul," she defends. And on she marches.

Biog by Rob Williams