MUSIC NOTES J. D. Buhl
Mavis Staples— She’ll Take You There
that spirit in the studio. They could also see the potential in a pop song like Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” or the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People” and take that to church. The former opens Hope at the Hideout, serving as both introductory vamp and mission statement: Something’s going on here, and hope, not paranoia, is the way Who knows why Chicago’s Mavis Staples to meet it. Staples’ purpose is to encourdidn’t get the call to appear at President age, and she states that up front. “We’ve Obama’s inauguration? She certainly would come tonight to bring you joy, happiness, have been ready. I mean, she’s been out inspiration, and positive vibrations.” Where other artists might allow for an there working that Freedom Highway for over 50 years so that Obama’s motorcade “inspirational moment,” taking a friendly one-song break from their usual concerns could roll to the White House. That’s all right. Released on Election of sex and power, Mavis is not afraid to Day, Live: Hope at the Hideout is party gather it up and present it in bushels. enough. This personable and passionate From the first “Keep your eyes on the performance lays the necessary groove prize” to the last “I’ll take you there,” this for Obama’s embodiment of the African is made-up-my-mind, I-won’t-turn-around, American rhetorical tradition and the elder music of conviction and determinasongs that accompany it. When he needs tion such as only becomes popular when to re-familiarize his staff with “We Shall things are really bad. With all the vigor Not Be Moved,” he can turn to this CD. of Bruce Springsteen leading his Sessions Recorded one June night in a Chicago Band through civil rights rave-ups, this blues club, the gravelly, growly Rock and 69-year-old grandmother gets down with Roll Hall of Famer led a three-piece band the good news: “We gonna get the prize and a trio of vocalists through 13 songs one day, if y’all just keep holdin’ on.” Five of the evening’s songs can be for a weary land. Hope is not something pasted onto the present. It is a hard-won found on the essential Staple Singers coland proudly worn history of faith, per- lection, Freedom Highway. Part of Sony/ Legacy’s The Gospel Spirit series of 1991, severance, and voices raised in praise. Mavis is an American treasure. No the 18-track CD presents recordings leftist leftover or hippie has-been, this made for Epic in the mid-to-late-’60s. woman has protested injustice and called Pops’“Why Am I Treated So Bad?” is one Christians to worship since her daddy of the group’s most memorable songs, —Roebuck “Pops” Staples, distinctive and Mavis’ slowed-down version here guitarist and activist—taught her to sing supports a great rap about her grandhis arrangement of the Carter Family’s mother’s moaning all the time.When the “Will the Circle be Unbroken” in the little girl asks why, Grandma replies,“Well, early 1950s, and she always sounds new. darlin’, when you moan, the devil don’t Until Pops’ death in 2000, the Staple know what you’re talkin’ about.” There is necessarily crossover also with Singers were a gospel group of great range and great soul. They could have the 2007 We’ll Never Turn Back, the Ry church with the best of them, as evi- Cooder-produced collection of spiritudenced by their live tracks for the Vee- als and civil rights anthems that gave this Jay label. It must have been easier for an live performance its context.With drumengineer to set up microphones in a mer Jim Keltner, his regular collaborator, sanctuary somewhere than try to capture Cooder puts down for Mavis a deep, PRISM 2009
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rippling groove like the surface of the Mississippi, along whose banks many of these songs came to be. Using only bass, drums, guitars, and voices—Ladysmith Black Mambazo and members of the original Freedom Singers—such essentials as “(Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody) Turn Me Around” and “99 and a Half (Won’t Do)” regain their zip while losing none of their serious intent.The title selection sounds like a Bob Dylan arrangement. Cooder, at once relaxed and restrained, compliments Staples’ I’ll-sing-the-next-wordwhen-I-get-to-it timing. Two Staples/Cooder originals give We’ll Never Turn Back its unique personality. “My Own Eyes” is Mavis’ autobiography set to a Pops Staples guitar figure that drops into a Keith Richards rhythm. Her narratives hit highlights like the March on Washington, and such grumbling lowlights as the post-Katrina abandonment of New Orleans. “I’ll Be Rested” boasts music by Cooder’s son, percussionist Joachim. Here Mavis recites the names of the fallen, both civil rights activists and important figures in gospel music, relishing the day she will join them,“when the roll is called.” During the fade of “My Own Eyes,” Mavis chuckles that she could “write a book about it.” Perhaps some day she will. For now, these two lengthy narratives will serve to address her past as well as our nation’s future. Never Turn Back ends with Mavis adding, “He already died for your freedom,
tell him what you want” to the most insistent, celebratory version of “Jesus Is on the Main Line” that I have ever heard. “He will answer!” she shouts. “Call him up!” Both albums include Cooder’s Shadows of Knight arrangement of “This Little Light of Mine.” Reverbing fearlessly, guitarist Rick Holmstrom lays down a template at the Hideout for garage bands to come. Mavis plants herself in the new lyrics: I ain’t gonna fight no rich man’s war That ain’t what God’s gonna use me for Killin’ folks ain’t in my line Sure ain’t no way to let my little light shine
Theologians will argue that she can’t know what God’s gonna use her for. But these are songs of peace. Those who died for them could not conceive of the God revealed in Christ Jesus condoning segregation, hatred, and abuse. By extension, those who sing them today can’t imagine an armed Jesus dragging Iraqis from their homes. Home is important. When Mavis goes off-mic, moaning a portion of “Waiting for My Child,” the almost unbearable intimacy of it makes you feel as if you’re outside a stranger’s window, watching a mother grieve. The Staple Singers may be best loved for their pop-soul hits of the ’70s, message songs like “Respect Yourself ” and “Heavy Makes You Happy.”Their biggest,
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“I’ll Take You There,” ends her night at the Hideout after the audience claps her back for three encores. Before that release, she takes them through a tense version of “On My Way,” slower and lower than that on We’ll Never Turn Back. If a brother or sister declines her invitation to the Freedom Land, she’ll go alone, she says. It’s beyond me how any believer can resist joining her in singing, “I’m on my way, great God a’mighty, I’m on my way.” J.D. Buhl appears in the music issue of Geez Magazine (Fall 2008). He teaches junior high English and literature at Queen of All Saints School in Concord, Calif., where he lives with his kitten, Billie.