MAVIS STAPLES – YOU’RE NOT ALONE

Mavis Staples teamed with Ry Cooder in 2007 for the excellent We’ll Never Turn Back, and this time around she has chosen an equally talented producer and collaborator in Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Although Tweedy wrote several tunes for this album, only the title track made the final cut, showing he was prepared to allow the album develop in the way that was best for Staples rather than his ego. While Cooder tended to have more natural empathy with Staples’ gospel roots, Tweedy’s alt country meets white soul provides another avenue for Staples robust and lived in soul voice to continue to shine for new generations. Reverend Gary Davis’s I Belong to the Band – Hallelujah has all the joy of a Southern Church choir in full swing combined with some Tweedy guitar twang, and John Fogerty’s Song For Everyone is highlight, a natural place for Staples and Tweedy to meet. If there is a better songwriters lament I’ve not heard it – “Wrote a song for everyone / Wrote a song for truth / Wrote a song for everyone / And i couldn’t even talk to you”.

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