In tracing the journey of modern music, there is one key takeaway: All roads lead to Mavis Staples.
Her legendary eight-decade career would prove as much. It has taken us through South Side Chicago churches to the Jim Crow South, across the Freedom Highway over to the Newport Folk Festival and back to Chicago for her second act. Staples has also been the common intersection of a litany of collaborations with Prince, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin in years past to modern alliances with Jeff Tweedy, Waxahatchee, Margo Price and Hozier.
This feeling remains undeniable when listening to Staples’ latest album, “Sad and Beautiful World” (out November 7 on ANTI- Records), that all but solidifies her role as a musical and cultural north star. The collection of 10 songs pulls from 70 years of a great musical songbook (nearly as long as the 86-year-old has been performing), exposing the lyrical poetry of Tom Waits, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen, Frank Ocean and Kevin Morby in a new dimension with Staples’ careful delivery.
On tracks like Cohen’s “Anthem” and the title track (written by Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous), Staples becomes a spiritual vessel for the words in which her soulful possession gives them renewed relevance. In addition to blessings from songwriters, the album also features a who’s who of guest instrumentalists who also rightfully bow at Staples’ altar, including Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, Nathaniel Rateliff, MJ Lenderman, Derek Trucks, Kara Jackson, Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, Black Pumas’ Eric Burton, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and old friends Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy.
Guy’s appearance on the album opener “Chicago” is a moving portrait — the cover of Tom Waits’ original captures the aching hope of the Great Migration that brought both the legendary guitarist and the Staples family north. The calling to lead with music has taken both artists into their 80s.
Altogether, “Sad and Beautiful World” (produced by Brad Cook, who has worked with Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, and Nathaniel Rateliff) comes across as a modern-day elegy from someone who has lived through trying times and yet kept the faith. Change is inevitable and so is the resilience of the human spirit, Staples proffers on the poignant single “Human Mind,” written by Hozier and Allison Russell and beautifully performed on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this week.
“I ain’t giving up baby,” she delivers in her full-bodied rasp. “I know that every tear that I’ve cried, through the worst in my life, was love in full supply. God bless the human mind.”
The track is followed by the gospel-tinged “Hard Times” (written by David Todd Rawlings & Gillian Howard Welch) in which Staples declares with gusto, “Hard times ain’t gonna rule my mind,” encouraging us all to do the same.
Released in a month punctuated by both an election and a Thanksgiving holiday, “Sad and Beautiful World” is the perfect confluence of both events: Gratitude for the life we get to lead and belief that a change is gonna come.
In an interview with The Guardian in late October, Staples shared with readers, “My father taught me: ‘Mavis, if you sing from your heart, you’ll reach the people, because what comes from the heart reaches the heart.’” Since she was eight years old, she has been doing so, today carrying on the torch of The Staples Singers for new generations. It’s a profound revelation that comes across in “Human Mind” as Staples belts out her feelings on being the last one standing. “I am the last, daddy, last of us. Ain’t always easy to believe. I miss my family.”
In spite of it all, she keeps going.
As Staples shared in an interview with the Sun-Times last December ahead of her 85th birthday celebration at the Auditorium Theatre: “Music is such a powerful force and has made such a difference in the world. As you know, we still have a lot of work to do. And music can be a big part of that positive change,” she said, believing herself to be part of the frontline.
She added: “Singing isn’t work for me … I don’t ever want to stop singing.”