The year 2017 has been full of political unrest and growing racial division in the United States, but for good or ill,
Mavis Staples has seen days like these before. As a teenager, she was a member of
the Staple Singers, who in their days as a gospel group were close friends and allies with
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the struggle for civil rights was at its peak. They also experienced more than their share of violence and hostility as an African-American family band touring in the Deep South in the late '50s and early '60s.
Mavis Staples was too strong to let hatred and narrow-mindedness break her when she was a twenty-something, and at the age of 78, she still isn't about to back down. Released in 2017,
If All I Was Was Black finds
Staples once again collaborating with
Jeff Tweedy of
Wilco, who produced the sessions and wrote the bulk of the songs, and while the lyrics tend not to focus on the specifics of the chaos that's marked the time it was made, it's definitely an album intended to speak to troubled times. As a woman of deep spiritual beliefs,
Staples is the ideal vehicle for these songs, which often deal with hatred, inequality, and indifference while making clear that love and understanding have the capacity to heal America's wounded spirit.
Staples' vocal style here is informed by equal parts vintage gospel and classic soul, and together they fill these messages with strength, compassion, and a much-needed sense of hope. The lyrics sometimes reflect
Tweedy's usual tropes as a writer, but
Staples gives them a musical and emotional force that sets them apart. Her voice is in splendid shape for a septuagenarian, still supple and able to navigate the twists of the melodies while sailing confidently over the arrangements that fuse indie rock with the feel of '70s soul. And if this set of songs is a bit short on specific answers to our problems, well, "We Shall Overcome" never explained how that would happen either. What's most special about
If All I Was Was Black is the way
Staples and her collaborators confront the challenges of a distraught world while filling the listener with the belief that all is not lost, that we can get past bad times and build a better future if we try. Quite simply, this is an album America needs. ~ Mark Deming