Soul-shouting legend Mavis Staples follows up her all-star 2007 debut on the hipster-friendly ANTI- label with a gutsy, stripped-down live session at Chicago’s rockingest venue, the Hideout. Local hero Barack Obama was still running for the White House, so the contagious spirit of a hometown performer who had marched with Martin Luther King 40 years ago charges every lyric about suffering and social change with real emotion. The swamp-garage sass of Civil Rights-era classics like J.B. Lenoir’s “Down in Mississippi” smoke their recent studio versions, as the 69-year-old Staples testifies in a tangy contralto laced with a little molasses and a lot of grit. Whether digging into gospel tradition (“Wade in the Water,” “This Little Light”) or recasting 1960s protest themes (“For What It's Worth”), the singer is lusty and commanding. Maybe it’s the twangy shimmer of her band, but every song feels like it’s about to turn into something by the Blasters or Creedence Clearwater Revival. The only mild regret here is that they never quite do.
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Feb 9, 2010
Ben Harper - Lay There & Hate Me Video (Explicit)
Playboy exclusive: Ben Harper's Lay There & Hat...
