MP3: Mavis Stapes – “You Are Not Alone” (with Jeff Tweedy)

The R&B legend just released You Are Not Alone, a collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. She plays the Belly Up tonight, November 4.

Mavis Staples began her career in the 1950s as part of the Staples Singers (“I’ll Take You There”), a family group led by her father, “Pops” Staples. In the 1960s, Pops and his singers contributed to the soundtrack of the Civil Rights Movement, reworking socially conscious songs like Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.”

In her five-plus decade career, Mavis Staples has released thirteen albums, including collaborations with Curtis Mayfield, Prince, Booker T. and the MGs, and John Scofield, and her voice has been sampled by hip-hop legends like Ice Cube and Ludacris. Staples has also remained close with Dylan; a 2003 collaboration with the Pulitzer-winning bard earned her a Grammy nod, and in 2008, Staples confessed on NPR that Dylan had once asked Pops for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

2010’s Jeff Tweedy-produced You Are Not Alone has earned Staples critical praise across the board: Mojo called it “a definite contender for 2010 album of the year,” and Rolling Stone credited her performance at Lollapalooza with “[lighting] a fire under the sleepy crowd.” Most recently, Staples performed with Tweedy at the hugely successful Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C.

That’s the long way of saying that Staples’ November 4 show with harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite is a “don’t miss.” Get your tickets here.

Mavis Staples tour dates
Nov 04 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up
Nov 05 – Los Angeles, CA – UCLA Live
Nov 06 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Nov 12 – Lucerne, Switzerland – Lucerne Blues Festival
Nov 14 – Lucerne, Switzerland – Lucerne Blues Festival
Nov 15 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Paradiso
Nov 17 – Camden, London – Jazz Cafe
Nov 19 – Stockholm, Sweden – NALEN
Nov 21 – Helsinki, Finland – Finlandia Hall
Nov 27 – Chicago, IL – Park West
Feb 24 – Baton Rouge, LA – Manship Theatre
Mar 13 – Green Bay, WI – Oneida Casino
Mar 14 – Green Bay, WI – Oneida Casino
Mar 15 – Green Bay, WI – Oneida Casino
Mar 24 – Brownfield, ME – Stone Mountain Arts Center
Mar 25 – Portsmouth, NH – The Music Hall
Mar 26 – Burlington, VT – Flynn Center
Mar 27 – Tarrytown, NY – Tarrytown Music Hall
Apr 02 – New Bedford, MA – Zeiterion Theatre