Mavis Staples Live in London

Mavis Staples
Live in London
Self-Produced

This gem of a live performance was recorded by the great Mavis Staples at London's Union Chapel over two July 2018 nights. She was backed by Rick Holmstrom – guitar and background vocals, Jeff Turmes – bass and background vocals, and Stephen Hodges – drums. Donny Gerard and Vicki Randle also provided backing vocals. She powerfully sings songs written by Ben Harper, Jeff Tweedy, her father Roebuck Staples, David Byrne, George Clinton, Curtis Mayfield, and others, along with one she co-wrote with Tweedy.

With a career extending seventy years, she continues to amaze with the vitality and nuanced phrasing of her vocals. Holmstrom's trebly, at times acidic guitar and the simple, functional backing from Turmes and Hodges, provide austere support for Mavis' robust, expressive vocals. The result is an album of compelling performances by a living legend.

This recording is available as a download on Bandcamp, https://mavisstaples.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-london.

I purchased this. This review appeared in the March-April 2020 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 389). Here Mavis Staples is heard and seen performing "No Time For Cryin'" from this album.

Mavis Staples Urges Us To Have A Little Faith

One of the highlights from this summer’s Pocono Blues Festival (2004) was the performance by Mavis Staples. Her set included some classics associated with the Staple Singers and what was then a preview of the recently issued Alligator disc, Have a Little Faith. This new album will be welcome for Ms. Staples’ many fans and gain her new fans. 

While the material is religious in nature, the basic messages of songs such as the title track, God Is Not Sleeping, In Times Like These and Step Into the Light can move persons of all faiths. The mood of many songs is mostly reassurance in these very troubling times we live in. There are some nods to the unsettled times on There’s a Devil on the Loose, while a couple of songs, Ain’t No Better Than You and At the End of the Day, promote the idea that whatever our state in life, we are all basically the same. As she sings on the latter number that whether one is a Wall Street broker or a fruit cart vendor, “At the end of the day, we’re all the same.” 

Mavis Staples at 2010 Pocono Blues Festival
Photo © Ron Weinstock

She recalls her late father on Pops Recipe, singing about he taught how to sing and how to live and gave his family all his love and everything he had to give. A Dying Man’s Plea is a moving rendition of See That My Grave is Kept Clean, with additional lyrics that Pops Staples had added with nice dobro and fiddle from John Rice. The album concludes with a new rendition of Will the Circle Be Unbroken, which was the first song the Staples learned to sing as a family and was a hit for them on Vee-Jay. 

Produced with Jim Tullio who adds percussion, bass and guitar on various tracks, Mavis Staples sings brilliantly with so much passion. The musicians in the studio provide a most sympathetic backing, with a bluesy-soul feel on most of the songs. This writer may be a religious skeptic but these performances move me. This is clearly among the best recordings (blues or otherwise) of this year. 

This review appeared in the October 2004 DC Blues Calendar and the November-December 2004 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 271). I received a review copy from Alligator.  Here is her with her dad Pops Stales and her sisters, The Staples Singers doing one of their classics.

Jeff Turmes' "Five Horses, Four Riders" Is Blues & Roots Gem

Jeff Turmes is a multi-talented bass player, vocalist and songwriter that currently is in Mavis Staples' touring band. He has graced numerous recordings including Mavis' Grammy Award winning album, You Are Not Alone. His most recent recording Five Horses, Four Riders (Fat Head Records), mixes blues and roots for a rich musical stew. The production here is austere, and the tenor of the performances is similar to his recent work with Mavis Staples.


One can hear echoes of John Lee Hooker boogie groove on the opening Something Must Have Happened, one of three performances that include Turmes' Mavis Staples bandmates, guitarist Rick Holmstrom and drummer Stephen Hodges on drums. "Honey Man," with its Mississippi Hills groove, suggests to me my good friend Memphis Gold's style. Turmes employs atmospheric slide slide along with banjo in support of his unusual lyrics on Give Satan a Chance.


There is a folky mood on the title track with deft acoustic guitar and a lyric of four menacing men coming for Turmes' wife. Don't The Moon Look Real is a playful, swinging number to which Holmstrom adds twang, while Turn Your Heart In My Direction is a lovely ballad with the yearning vocal embellished by moody trumpet. Banjo accompaniment lends an old-time flavor to Weeds Like Us, followed by his acoustic blues accompaniment to Hew To The Roadside, with its advice that one needs to hew to the roadside if one wants to last. Overdubbed bass clarinet and baritone sax add a bottom under his adroit guitar playing.


The bluesy Jack-a-Hammer has a simple, repeated vamp as Turmes singing how this woman wears a man down. Loser's History is another folky number with topical lyrics as his banjo is framed by cello and violin. Turmes ability to craft lyrics that catch the listener's attention is also showcased on God Came Down from Heaven, followed by the emphatic groove on the bluesy When My Baby Wakes Up, with effective employment of baritone saxophones. The closing Iron City is a lovely instrumental displaying his deliberate guitar picking.


The production throughout is austere, and the tenor of the performances is similar to his recent work with Mavis Staples. Turmes' straight-ahead vocals, supported by the spare backing, adds to the performances atmosphere throughout. There is precision and restraint in the playing throughout resulting in substance rather than flashy pyrotechnics. Five Horses, Four Riders is a marvelous collection of blues and roots songs that linger in one's mind after hearing. Highly Recommended.

My review copy was received from a publicist for this release.

Staples Singers Stax Classic Remastered

The Staples Singers had a very distinguished career prior to signing with Stax, but it was with the famed Memphis label that they obtained far wider notice than simply gospel singers. Concord’s latest Stax Remasters includes the Staples classic Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, an album that extended their musical reach from gospel to message songs with an uplifting messages. This was the third album on Stax for the Staples and the first produced by Al Bell who had signed the group to Stax. After two albums with Booker T and the MGs, Bell decided to take them down to Muscle Shoals and used that famed studio band and then later mixed at Ardent Studios as opposed to Stax’s own McLemore Avenue studio.

Be Altitude: Respect Yourself is the album that produced two of the songs they are most identified, Respect Yourself and I’ll Take You There, which one trusts many are familiar with. These still are part of Mavis Staples’ live performances and were the heaviest hitters of the many chart records the Staples had for Stax. There are so many pleasures on this besides the great vocals by Mavis and family members, the stellar studio bands and Pops Staples guitar.

Rob Bowman in the booklet notes the origins of Respect Yourself, a collaboration between Sir Mack Rice and Luther Ingram, and how Bell made some changes most notably the tempo. In any event, the recordings still resonate four decades later and for those who passed on the album when it cam out can savor other delights like the Covay-Stevenson-Pickett groover, This Old Town (People In This Town), as the message of We The People, have to make the world go round and better and get let things get wild, the Sweet Inspirations This World, and Pops Staples Who Do You Think You Are (Jesus Christ the Superstar), a slow number which obviously alludes to the famous musical of the time. Two rarities are added to make a strong reissue of the Staples at what rob Bowman rightfully suggests was their peak.

My review copy was provided by the record label or a publicist for the release.

Farewell Pocono Blues Festival

2010-0725 Pocono Blues Day 3-1688, originally uploaded by NoVARon.

Mavis Staples was the closing main stage performer at the 19th Pocono Blues Festival July 29, 2010. Like others who have been making to trip to Lake Harmony PA, I was looking forward to attending the 20th Festival in July 2011. It was an event I regularly looked forward to each year as it brought together the best blues acts as well as blues performers who were lesser known. The connection between them was that they were blues acts, not some blues-rock performer who headlined lots of glitzy festivals, but folks like Jody Williams, Jimmy McCracklin, Jimmy Johnson, the late Robert Lockwood Jr., the late Ruth Brown, Shemekia Copeland, Alabama Mike, Denise LaSalle, Floyd Taylor, Latimore, Long John Hunter, Lowell Fulson, Sugar Pie DeSanto, James Cotton, Eddie Clearwater, the late Johnny Jones and Charles Walker, Roy Roberts, Barbara Carr, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, James Peterson, Theodis Ealey, Charlie Musselwhite, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin, Eddie Shaw & the Wolf Gang, Koko Taylor, Johnny Copeland, Guitar Shorty, and Wanda Jackson. One thing you did not find were the popularizers, imitators or the latest Stevie Ray Vaughan wanna be.

Theodis Ealey at 19th Pocono Blues Festival

I have many memories of great performances at the Pocono Blues Festival. Johny Copeland sitting in the back of the stage with a big smile while Clarence Holiman and Carol Fran were performing, or James Peterson singing and playing while riding down on a ski lift to teh stage. Then there was the time when Eddie "The Chief' Clearwater, rode to the stage on a horse with full regalia or Shemekia Copeland taking a ride on a Harley before her performance.

Michael Cloeren on left with photographer Dusty Scott

And there were the people,the folk in the photo pit as well as simple fans, who came back year after year. One made friends with the staff and folks one saw every year. It was a festival but also felt like a very large family at times.

I thank Mike Cloeren and all the folk who worked with him to put on what was heaven for blues fans in the Pennsylvania Mountains for all these years. It is unfortunate that the festival is a victim of the economic times and couldn't at least make it to the 20th Festival so we could come together one last time. The memories from the festival will last us for our lifetimes.