Mavis Staples Jeff Tweedy on New Trump
Jeff Tweedy
Mavis Staples  was just eight years old when  one evening in 1948   her  father  Roebuck "Pops" Staples  sat  her  and  her  siblings down on the floor of their South Side Chicago apartment  and taught them their first-ever song: the country-gospel traditional "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Seventy years later  and little more than 10 miles north of that same childhood home  Mavis Staples was in  Jeff Tweedy's  loft recording studio listening to some new songs  he  had written when  Tweedy  began strumming a plaintive folk number called "Peaceful Dream."
As soon as  he  began to play the song  Staples was immediately reminded of her first experience as a singer.
 Tweedy  was overjoyed; that's exactly what  he  had intended.
"Mavis "  he  responded  "I'm even playing a couple of Pops' guitar licks in there."
"Peaceful Dream" forms the backbone of Staples' latest album  If All I Was Was Black  her third collaboration with  Tweedy  since 2010. It is the latest release in an incredibly prolific period of work from Staples  during which she has toured nearly constantly  appeared at several high-profile tribute concerts in her honor  and found time to team up with M. Ward for her rootsy 2016 record Livin' on a High Note.
But unlike her first two cheery  largely apolitical records with  Tweedy   including  their  Grammy-winning 2010 collaborative debut You Are Not Alone  Staples' new album â out November 17th â is a pointed piece of social commentary that directly recalls the social-justice anthems Mavis once sang with the Staple Singers alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in the Sixties.
"Mavis was really surprisingly OK with sounding angry  " Tweedy  says of their new album. "It's the first time since we started working together where there's been a righteous anger that she's been comfortable with."
"Mavis and I talked about how sadly  the time isn't right to put out another happy  feel-good record " Tweedy explains. "It's time to remind people that the songs that she sings from the time with her father and the Staple Singers  back when they were embedded in the civil-rights movement  those songs aren't nostalgic. I think people can sometimes take them that way when she does her shows. I thought it would be great if we could make a record that was all about now and that really hammered home the point that this is not a struggle that's over. In a lot of ways it's not a struggle that  we 've even begun the types of conversations that we need to have."
"I've never taken 'Freedom Highway' out of my set  because I knew  we  weren't finished  my work wasn't finished " says Staples. "But I never thought I'd have to go this far."
"Jeff Tweedy and I knew  we  had to get back together " she continues. "I had to get back to the master  back to the downright poet. Me and Jeff Tweedy   we 've been there  I more so than Tweedy has  and  we  know what  we 're talking about   we  know what needs to be heard."
One song that Staples specifically played a large part in writing was the title track. In its earliest stage   Tweedy  was hesitant about even singing the song himself  asking Staples if  she  thought it was OK for  him  to show  her  an early version of the song. "There's a demo version of me singing 'If All I Was Was Black '"  Tweedy  says with nervous laughter. "I don't know if that should ever see the light of day."
When  her  record label was testing out various ideas for the album cover  Mavis Staples insisted on a stark  side-profile photograph of the singer that covered most of her face in dark shadows.
"They were trying out some different ideas and I said no  'Just put me on the cover  black as I can be '"  she  says. "It's beautiful."
Staples was inspired to record  her  new album  in part  by a recent slew of young singers  she 's seen carry on  her  tradition of socially minded freedom songs. In the past year alone  Rhiannon Giddens named  her  most recent album Freedom Highway (and covered the Staple Singer original)  while artists like Gorillaz and Benjamin Booker have enlisted Staples to sing on 2017 anthems like "Let Me Out" and "Witness."
When Staples first heard the latter  written by Booker   she  thought  "Lord  thank you Jesus  we got some help. Me and  Tweedy  got some help."
Mavis Staples  was just eight years old when  one evening in 1948   her  father  Roebuck "Pops" Staples  sat  her  and  her  siblings down on the floor of their South Side Chicago apartment  and taught them their first-ever song: the country-gospel traditional "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Seventy years later  and little more than 10 miles north of that same childhood home  Mavis Staples was in   [TGT] loft recording studio listening to some new songs   [TGT]   had written when   [TGT] began strumming a plaintive folk number called "Peaceful Dream."
As soon as   [TGT]   began to play the song  Staples was immediately reminded of her first experience as a singer.
  [TGT] was overjoyed; that's exactly what   [TGT]   had intended.
"Mavis "   [TGT]   responded  "I'm even playing a couple of Pops' guitar licks in there."
"Peaceful Dream" forms the backbone of Staples' latest album  If All I Was Was Black  her third collaboration with  Tweedy  since 2010. It is the latest release in an incredibly prolific period of work from Staples  during which she has toured nearly constantly  appeared at several high-profile tribute concerts in her honor  and found time to team up with M. Ward for her rootsy 2016 record Livin' on a High Note.
But unlike her first two cheery  largely apolitical records with  Tweedy   including  their  Grammy-winning 2010 collaborative debut You Are Not Alone  Staples' new album â out November 17th â is a pointed piece of social commentary that directly recalls the social-justice anthems Mavis once sang with the Staple Singers alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in the Sixties.
"Mavis was really surprisingly OK with sounding angry  " Tweedy  says of their new album. "It's the first time since we started working together where there's been a righteous anger that she's been comfortable with."
"Mavis and I talked about how sadly  the time isn't right to put out another happy  feel-good record " Tweedy explains. "It's time to remind people that the songs that she sings from the time with her father and the Staple Singers  back when they were embedded in the civil-rights movement  those songs aren't nostalgic. I think people can sometimes take them that way when she does her shows. I thought it would be great if we could make a record that was all about now and that really hammered home the point that this is not a struggle that's over. In a lot of ways it's not a struggle that  we 've even begun the types of conversations that  [TGT]  need to have."
"I've never taken 'Freedom Highway' out of my set  because I knew   [TGT]   weren't finished  my work wasn't finished " says Staples. "But I never thought I'd have to go this far."
"Jeff Tweedy and I knew   [TGT]   had to get back together " she continues. "I had to get back to the master  back to the downright poet. Me and Jeff Tweedy   we 've been there  I more so than Tweedy has  and   [TGT]   know what   [TGT]  're talking about    [TGT]   know what needs to be heard."
One song that Staples specifically played a large part in writing was the title track. In its earliest stage   Tweedy  was hesitant about even singing the song himself  asking Staples if  she  thought it was OK for  him  to show  her  an early version of the song. "There's a demo version of me singing 'If All I Was Was Black '"  Tweedy  says with nervous laughter. "I don't know if that should ever see the light of day."
When  her  record label was testing out various ideas for the album cover  Mavis Staples insisted on a stark  side-profile photograph of the singer that covered most of her face in dark shadows.
"They were trying out some different ideas and I said no  'Just put me on the cover  black as I can be '"  she  says. "It's beautiful."
Staples was inspired to record  her  new album  in part  by a recent slew of young singers  she 's seen carry on  her  tradition of socially minded freedom songs. In the past year alone  Rhiannon Giddens named  her  most recent album Freedom Highway (and covered the Staple Singer original)  while artists like Gorillaz and Benjamin Booker have enlisted Staples to sing on 2017 anthems like "Let Me Out" and "Witness."
When Staples first heard the latter  written by Booker   she  thought  "Lord  thank you Jesus  we got some help. Me and  Tweedy  got some help."