Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples – We Get By (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:54 minutes | 389 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Mavis Staples returns with a brand new studio album produced and written by Ben Harper. Backed by Mavis’ critically acclaimed live band, We Get By features 10 songs of longing, strength, and spirituality, presented with simplicity, grit and sublime beauty. Highlights include the buoyant, “Anytime”, the cathartic, “Change”, and the title track, an uplifting duet with Ben Harper.

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Mavis Staples – Livin’ On A High Note (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:39 minutes | 432 MB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Even at 76 years old, nothing’s stopping Mavis Staples! Since 2007 and her signature to Anti music label, the high priestess of gospel soul and lead of the Staple Singers is frequenting recording studios now more than ever, not to mention always being well accompanied. After We’ll Never Turn Back in 2007 (produced by Ry Cooder), You Are Not Alone in 2010 and One True Vine in 2013 (both directed by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco), the daughter of Pops Staples now publishes Livin ‘ On A High Note. This time, Mavis Staples has ordered a few henchmen, all of whom are much younger than her. Result: a flamboyant and colorful cast including Nick Cave, Ben Harper, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), The Head & the Heart, Tune-Yards, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, The Little, and Valerie June among others. Obviously, the hostess seizes all these tracks and makes them her own.

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Mavis Staples – Live in London (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:38 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: R&B, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Mavis Staples has announced ‘Live in London,’ a new live album recorded over two nights at London’s Union Chapel (which she calls “the best place in the world to sing”) and produced by Staples herself. ‘Live in London’ reveals that the singer retains astonishing power after seventy years as a performer and that while her repertoire continues to expand her philosophy is unchanged since her days in the groundbreaking family group, the Staple Singers.

Ironically her last live record—2008’s ‘Hope at the Hideout’—was cut against the background of her fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama’s historic election, while the new album inevitably addresses the horrors of the Donald Trump era. “No Time for Cryin’“ not only connects the timeless gospel image of “motherless children” to the modern-day refugee crisis, it also calls for action, just as Pops Staples and his children did during the Civil Rights movement.

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Mavis Staples – If All I Was Was Black (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:38 minutes | 723 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Ten years after signing with the ANTI label, Mavis Staples pursues her impressive resurrection. Still joined by Jeff Tweedy, the great soul gospel priestess even hands him the wheel in this If All I Was Black, for which the band leader of Wilco has penned all the songs. After We’ll Never Turn Back produced in 2007 by Ry Cooder, You Are Not Alone in 2010, One True Vine in 2013 and Livin’ On A High Note in 2016 (on which she asked Nick Cave, Ben Harper, Justin Vernon a.k.a. Bon Iver, The Head & The Heart, tUnE-yArds, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, Son Little, Valerie June and M Ward to participate), Pops Staples’ daughter inhabits each composition and her voice tames the lyrics of songs that couldn’t be more politically motivated. A major figure of the Civil Right Movement, a regular of great causes and militancy in songs, this lady masters these anti-Trump pieces with her usual class, with strong yet subtle criticisms—that are never Manichean nor childish—of an American in full regression. Above all, the blend of gospel inwardness, soul power and rhythm ‘n’ blues groove that she offers perfectly combines with Tweedy’s rustic and ‘no added sugars’ production. A great soul disc!

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Mavis Staples – If All I Was Was Black (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/48 kHz | Time – 34:38 minutes | 400 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Master, Master Quality Audio Rip – Source: Tidal | Front cover | © Anti – Epitaph

“If All I Was Was Black” is the sixteenth studio album by Mavis Staples. The album was written and produced by Jeff Tweedy, who also features on the fourth track. Staples said about the album “(It) bring us all together as a people. That’s what I hope to do. You can’t stop me. You can’t break me. I’m too loving. These songs are going to change the world”.

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