Music

Singer Mavis Staples to christen new auditorium

Mavis Staples will perform Friday at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock.
Mavis Staples will perform Friday at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock.

Singer Mavis Staples is 76 years old, but still remembers vividly the first time she ever performed with her family in public.

"I was 8," she says from Los Angeles. "We went and sang at my Aunt Katie's church. Uncle Chester was pastor. My brother sang lead, I sang baritone, Cleotha sang tenor, and Yvonne sang second lead. Aunt Katie heard Pops teaching us a song and she said, 'Say, you sound pretty good. We should have you sing at the church.'"

Mavis Staples

8 p.m. Friday, Center for the Humanities and Arts, Pulaski Technical College, 3000 West Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. Doors open at 6. Cash bar.

Tickets: $65, $75, $100

pulaskitech.edu/mav…

(501) 812-2200

The family -- brother Pervis, sisters Yvonne, Cleotha and Mavis with their guitar-playing father Roebuck "Pops" Staples -- performed "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" three times. It was the only song the children knew all the way through.

"Pops said afterward, 'We're going to have to learn more songs!'"

It was the inaugural performance of a family group that would profoundly shape American music. Gospel, folk, rock, soul -- the Staple Singers' reach was far and wide. They were part of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement, performing with their friend Martin Luther King Jr.; they influenced Bob Dylan and recorded his "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and "Masters of War"; their 1959 album Uncloudy Day was the first gospel record to sell 1 million copies; and they had massive commercial hits with 1971's "Respect Yourself," "I'll Take You There" -- written and produced by Brinkley native and Stax Records executive Al Bell -- in '72 and "(If You're Ready) Come Go With Me," in '73.

Staples, who still lives on Chicago's south side, will perform Friday at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. Her appearance is the final event in a week-long celebration of the school's new Center for the Humanities and Arts. She last played Arkansas at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock on Oct. 11, 2013.

"There are a lot of reasons we're excited about Mavis Staples," says Tim Jones, associate vice president of public relations and marketing with Pulaski Tech. "The cultural heritage she brings, especially here at the beginning of Black History Month, and the Staple Singers' connection to Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. But she's also still very vital and creative."

He's right. Staples' 2010 album, You Are Not Alone, produced by fellow Chicagoan and Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy, won a Grammy for Best Americana Album. Journalist Greg Kot told the story of her and her family in his 2014 book I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March up Freedom's Highway; she was among the musical guests on the September premiere of the Stephen Colbert Show; and released the critically acclaimed EP Your Good Fortune last year.

And it looks like 2016 is the Year of Mavis.

There's the fantastic new record, Livin' on a High Note -- her 14th solo album -- with songs by Nick Cave, Head and Heart, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, Benjamin Booker, Justin Vernon, Valerie June and more handpicked by Staples that will be released Feb. 19; a documentary, Mavis!, directed by Jessica Edwards, will air Feb. 29 on HBO; and she's scheduled to perform at California's sprawling Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April as part of her current tour.

Oh, and Friday's North Little Rock performance isn't even her only Arkansas stop in the first quarter of this year. On March 12, she'll be at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville with singer-songwriter Nick Lowe.

Talking about the new album, which was produced by Matthew Stephen "M." Ward, Staples, who was rehearsing with her band in Los Angeles, said the songwriters she asked to contribute called to mind her kin.

"A lot of the artists and songwriters remind me in some ways of the family, of the Staple Singers," she says. "Some, like Ben Harper, I have been knowing for years, and some, like Benjamin Booker, I discovered when he sent his song demo and I fell for the sound, the talent. And I'd crossed paths on the road with a lot of them, Head and Heart, Neko. Aaron [Livingston, also known as Son Little, who has worked with The Roots] produced my EP and on his record he has message songs like we used to -- his song 'Mother' gives me chills. So even though they are the new generation, I could feel the threads that tied them to back in the day."

The songs' range includes the righteous social consciousness of "Action," the uplifting "Take Us Back" and the breezy positivity of "High Note." The record closes with the acoustic, back porch blues "MLK Song," which includes lyrics from one of King's speeches.

"What I've kept, what I hang on to, is Dr. King's laughter," Staples says of her memories of King. "Because most of the time I'd see him, he would either be sad or serious. But every now and then you would hear him and some of the other men laughing. ... That'd make me feel so happy. He was a man that you just marveled over."

In looking for material for Livin' on a High Note, Staples says, "I used to tell writers, 'No more love songs for me. I'm an old gal now, I've sung my love songs.' But this time I didn't say anything and I just listened to the songs the folks were so kind to send. And there were not too many love songs, but the words and the message -- I had to really dig in and find a way to connect to the songs and be able to really sing them and find a meaning I could relate to. And that was so much fun."

Just don't ask her to pick a favorite, though we tried.

"Awww ... I like them all so much. They all have some love in them, some joy. They're different but they have the same feeling. And it's not songs that people might be used to hearing from me, but that people can listen to and think on and hopefully remember me by in years to come."

Family is a constant topic for Staples. Her father, Pops, died Dec. 19, 2000, and Cleotha died in 2013, but Yvonne still lives nearby in Chicago and they still hang out.

"She isn't touring with me anymore, and I miss her, but when I'm home I visit her, and we have ice cream, and I tell her about the last tour or the shows we just played. We'll still sing."

Seeing her life onscreen in the new documentary wasn't an experience she sought, but Staples says she's pleased with the result.

"When it first came up, I didn't really want to do the film ... I felt like I had enough. But Jessica convinced me, and I'm so happy I agreed. I saw it all the way through the first time in Texas. That was hard. All the memories came back and I couldn't help but cry. I thought I was all done telling those stories, but I'm glad I did it again. I don't even like to listen to my records with other people, but it was fun to watch the movie in the screening."

Speaking of movies, one of the all-time goose bump-inducing moments in rock 'n' roll concert films is the Staple Singers and The Band singing "The Weight" during The Last Waltz. Staples says she has fond memories of Phillips County native and Band drummer/vocalist Levon Helm and of performing at the Midnight Rambles at his home in Woodstock, N.Y.

"Oh, Levon. I miss him. He was always like a brother to us. We were close. Levon is the only person in the world that I heard call Pops by his real name -- Roebuck! I am reminded of The Last Waltz often, as people always mention it to me and how I whispered 'Beautiful' at the end [of singing 'The Weight']. His mother, Nell, was at the taping, and so it always felt like family, same as us. His daughter Amy is my god-daughter still; we do shows together seems like every few months. In [Mavis!], there's footage of the last time Levon and I were together at his barn, for a week one summer. That was so special. We rambled!"

Weekend on 02/04/2016

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