© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

For Mavis Staples, The Work Is Never Done

Mavis Staples' <em>We Get By</em> comes out May 24.
Myriam Santos
/
Courtesy of the artist
Mavis Staples' We Get By comes out May 24.

Note: NPR's First Listen audio comes down after the album is released. However, you can still listen with the Bandcamp playlist at the bottom of the page.


Mavis Staples turns 80 this summer. She's a respected elder of soul and gospel music, a beloved collaborator with rock musicians, and a living embodiment of gospel music's place in the civil rights movement. But she's no static symbol of the past.

Since 2004, she's released a series of fresh, powerful solo albums that feel vital and present, sparked by collaborations with Jeff Tweedy. We Get By,with songs written by Ben Harper, is consistent with her recent work, but has an intense, late-night feel that sounds both defiant and ready for the end. The quiet on the record pushes you to listen carefully to Staples' still rich and experienced voice, especially on the lonely "Hard to Leave" and "Heavy on My Mind." She sounds isolated and prayerful, but on "Change" and "Brothers and Sisters," she calls out, once again, for justice and equality.

The album cover features Gordon Parks' photograph "Outside Looking In," which was part of his 1956 photo essay The Restrains: Open and Hidden.A group of six African American children look through a fence at a playground they can't enter. They're grown now, maybe some have even died. We Get Byreminds us that the civil rights work The Staples Singers set out to do a half century ago is still to be done. It's one of her best.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Lauren Onkey is the Senior Director of NPR Music in Washington, DC. In this role, she leads NPR Music's team of journalists, critics, video, and podcast makers, and works with NPR's newsroom and robust Member station network to expand the impact of NPR Music and continue positioning public radio as an essential force in music.