If All I Was Was Black
Mavis Staples has again joined forces with songwriter-producer Jeff Tweedy for a new album entitled If All I Was Was Black, out this November 17th. The history Mavis recalls from her early years touring with her family as The Staple Singers, the prejudice, ugliness and danger, well it’s all still here. In response, the singer has delivered If All I Was Was Black, ten songs about contemporary America today, a present day filled with ghosts of the past. "Nothing has changed," Mavis remarked in early August, just days before neo-Nazis marched with swastika flags in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a young woman was murdered. "We are still in it.” If All I Was Was Black is Mavis' third collaboration with songwriter and producer (and Wilco frontman) Jeff Tweedy. Their first partnership in 2010, You Are Not Alone, won a Grammy Award for Best Americana album. Their second effort together, One True Vine, was a Grammy nominee. But If All I Was Was Black marks the first time Tweedy has composed an entire album of original songs for Mavis' legendary voice and a nation she's uniquely poised to address.
Mavis Staples presents her signature hope on the taut and lively If All I Was Was Black, another collaboration with Jeff Tweedy. But it doesn’t come as naturally as it once did, as she makes clear.
Charlotte Gainsbourg takes full creative control on Rest; the late Sharon Jones takes one final encore on Soul Of A Woman; and OCS reverts to its lush, reflective roots on Memory Of A Cut Off Head. These, plus The Body & Full Of Hell, Mavis Staples, and Kamaiyah in this week’s notable releases.
On Black, Staples and Tweedy instead channel their unease with our ongoing state of unrest, employing mostly minimalist…
Mavis Staples – If All I Was Was Black, Sly5thAve – The Invisible Man, Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy – A Pocket Of Wind Resistance, Whitney Houston – I Wish You Love: More From The Bodyguard, and Yello – Live In Berlin
The year 2017 has been full of political unrest and growing racial division in the United States, but for good or ill, Mavis Staples has seen days like these before.
Throughout her illustrious 48-year solo career, Mavis Staples has never stayed musically stagnant, melding her radiant sound with some of th...
Turns out Mavis Staples phase of wilful joy was a short-lived - she's back to her righteous best on her new LP 'If All I Was Was Black'.
Mavis Staples’s album is hopeful and optimistic not in ignorance of political reality, but in spite of it.
Staples is still wading into troubled waters, with a voice as bold and relevant as ever.