Mavis Staples has been fighting the good fight through music for damn-near the whole of her 86 and counting years. Though she has watched her family, one by one, go on to glory, she has never wavered from their mission of bringing hope, joy, love, and inspiration to every heart she meets. And so it is we find her If All I Was Was Black.
Crafted and released in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election and subsequent 2017 unrest, the album pairs Mavis with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy as a writer and producer. The songs, therein, are, sadly, as timeless as the topics they address... namely bigotry, inequality, and apathy in the face of both. But, Mavis, as true as ever, continues to hold fast to the idea of understanding and unity, despite the world persistently pushing against her.
Mavis, as were all the Staples, perfect embodies the intersection of faith and freedom, gospel and soul... for those things are all the same in her eyes and experience. AllMusic.com writes of her influences, “They fill these messages with strength, compassion, and a much-needed sense of hope. The lyrics sometimes reflect Tweedy's usual tropes as a writer, but Staples gives them a musical and emotional force that sets them apart.”
Mavis's deftness with both comfort and conviction has been hard-earned through the various freedom fires that have branded the past century of US history. Truly, if SHE can still have hope, then who are any of us to question her? In what may be the greatest summation in music criticism history, AllMusic adds, “If this set of songs is a bit short on specific answers to our problems, well, 'We Shall Overcome' never explained how that would happen either.”
Hear the whole episode March 25 at 6 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm PT.
