Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples has a new album out, produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and pretty unabashedly excellent. In my review at Dusted this morning, I said, Its selection of covers, variety of arrangement styles, its suppleness in supporting Staples’ voice all speak to a real understanding of who she is and what she does. And so, unlike some May-December musical partnerships, You Are Not Alone seems less about updating the older musician’s image or making her relevant to a younger audience, and more about celebrating what is unique to her.

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Here’s the title track, one of two that Tweedy wrote for her

3 comments:

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

I heard Tweedy was producing it - en vogue with Ryan Adams producing Willie Nelson and Okkervil River producing Roky - and almost passed, but thank god you reviewed this. I'm just about convinced to get a copy now. Still making up my mind as I'm not really a gospel enthusiast, but what I heard sounded pretty good.

jenniferpkelly said...

I was just thinking it was maybe top ten for 2010. i have to make a list of second-half stuff and see how it works with first-half favorites. I think I've got about 40 candidates at the moment.

But this is good, regardless.

Jean-Luc Garbo said...

How high is the new Wovenhand still ranked for you?