#pervis staples

[beblk]

365 blk!

Wattstax blk!

[culturalappreciator]

RIP to singer & member of R&B/Gospel group The Staple Singers,

Pervis Staples (1935-2021)

[nedison]

The Day Is Passed & Gone - The Staple Singers (1961)

R.I.P. Pervis.

[midnineties]

Newport Folk Festival, 1964.

[krispyweiss]

Uncloudy Day: Mavis Staples Turns 80

At an age when many musicians and singers are long retired, or should be, Mavis Staples’ career is going full-tilt as she releases albums at a dizzying clip and seems to be eternally on the road

Mavis - who along with brother Pervis is one of two surviving Staple Singers - begins her ninth decade of life today, July 10, 2019.

Always a fountain of light, Staples’ world will be a bit brighter with 80 candles flickering in her honor.

She’s been walking the freedom highway for more than 60 years, first as a vocalist under the tutelage of her father, “Pops” Staples, and now as an elder stateswoman revered by the likes of Jeff Tweedy and Ben Harper - not to mention virtually everyone else - who respectively produced her two most-recent studio LPs, If All I Was Was Black and We Get By.

Bob Dylan wanted to marry her. Everybody wants to play with her - Staples’ 80th-birthday concerts earlier this year featured appearances from Jason Isbell, Norah Jones, Lake Street Dive, Warren Haynes, Nick Lowe, David Byrne, the Milk Carton Kids and many others. And as she continues to make records and put on electrifying shows, Staples can still take you there.

7/10/19

[soulmusicsongs]

It's Unbelievable (How You Control My Soul) - Pervis Staples and Carla Thomas (Boy Meets Girl, 1969)

[rainingmusic]

The Staple Singers - Let's Do It Again

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Mavis Staples: ‘All that progress we made – and now we have a liar in the White House'

In a hotel room in Detroit, a 78-year-old woman is rasping down the phone. She can’t quite hear every word I say, as she spent last night in a loud theatre with her old boyfriend, Bob: “We talk about old times.” Bob is Bob Dylan; Mavis Staples supported him on his most recent American tour.

Dylan asked Staples to marry him in 1964, shortly after they had kissed for the first time at the Newport folk festival; she said no, feeling that back then she couldn’t marry a white man. “That’s a long time ago,” she says, in a clipped, no-nonsense fashion, shutting down any discussion of rekindled romance. “These days, we just play and go back to our own lives. We’re old now. As soon as the gig’s over, I’m going to bed to sleep.”

Staples started making music with her family band, the Staple Singers, in 1948 before pop music really existed, but pop musicians are still clamouring to work with her in 2017. This year, she has featured on records by Arcade Fire and Gorillaz, and released her own album, If All I Was Was Black, its title track a simple, profoundly moving song about racism. (“If all I was was black / Don’t you wanna know me more than that?”)

“This record is all about hope,” Staples explains. Her voice is guttural and deep – that famous huskiness is something she has had since her childhood. “How we can come together and fix things, and build bridges. If everyone heard these songs, whatever the colour of their skin, they’d fall in love with each other.” [Read More]