Tell me about... The Staple Singers

New movie doc Mavis! is showing in W. DC Sunday night, and will be out on HBO after a theatre run.

I saw it and mostly liked it, although parts of it bugged me (as well as things that were left out). Director Jessica Edwards’ Mavis! is more than just singer Mavis Staples’ story: It’s about her father (guitarist Pops Staples), their family band (the Staple Singers), the civil rights movement, and “I’ll Take You There.” The movie largely follows the standard procedure of mixing archival photos and film alongside new interviews with musicians (Bob Dylan, Chuck D, members of the Band), journalists (biographer Greg Kot, gospel historian and producer Anthony Heilbut), and friends. To keep the film contemporary, Edwards says she consciously tried to only include archival footage that features Mavis. This approach captures the still-vibrant seventysomething’s personality, but it also means her current producer, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, gets more screen time than, say, her longtime colleague, activist Julian Bond. Still, the film displays Mavis’ skillful vocal chops, warmth, and tenacity from her days as a booming, deep-voiced teen gospel singer on through her family’s freedom songs period, Stax Records soul years, and solo Prince-produced efforts, plus Tweedy ones. Mavis and her father are eloquent throughout. She recounts him saying, “If Dr. King can preach it, we can sing it,” and later pays homage to her dad: “You laid the foundation. I’m still working on the building.”

So even though Mavis signed off on having Tweedy and his son add their musicianship to a release of old Pop recorded material, I still wish Tweedy said no and just either left the tapes as is, or got others to record. Perhaps I am not giving Tweedy or his drummer son enough credit.

^^^doc is great, everybody watch it

I was shocked to see actual footage of her and Prince in the recording studio, with Prince behind the mixing board, talking her through a take

plus: footage of her at Levon Helm's home, singing "The Last Time" with him, p intense

will def check this out; sounds great

is it on dvd? or just making the rounds in theaters?

it's on hbo now

I admit I kinda teared up watching Mavis cry while listening to the raw, unaccompanied tracks of Pops' last album

i still haven't heard that pops solo album ...

I've only heard clips of that and the recent Mavis stuff, but it all sounded p good tbh.

yeah i should check it out ... that recent staples box set is a total pleasure

Given all the musical artists passing away recently, I was more than a little hesitant to click on this thread.

she looks like she is in great shape tbh, still working/motivated, she is really inspirational.

was also surprised by Dylan's appearance (feel like he never appears as a talking head in *anything*), and by the fact that apparently he had quite a crush on/flirted with Mavis in the early 60s

wasn't too into the last one from mavis (it didn't seem bad but), the new album with ben harper is sitting right, though

RAZ: Pops, I think I want to marry that Mavis.
R”P”S: Tell her that, not me.

X-post- will have to check out the effort with Harper. Something about Jeff Tweedy’s work with her rubbed me the wrong way. The whole we need an indie rock guy to market and present her thing. Kinda like Bettye Lavette and her Dylan and Who covers

Nice bit of footage if you can ignore the pop-ups that keep, er, popping up every five seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcFvyp8SlLA