Not counting
I'll Take You There: An All-Star Concert Celebration,
Live in London is
Mavis Staples' first live album since 2008's
Live: Hope at the Hideout. Since that Chicago date,
Staples has made four remarkable studio LPs -- three with
Jeff Tweedy, one with
M. Ward -- that sensibly form the basis of this, drawn from a two-night stand at Islington's Union Chapel. Her cracking band features many of the players heard on the Chicago recording, and they still bear some likeness to either the spectral or approaching chooglin' modes of
Creedence Clearwater Revival. The set list similarly stretches back decades to classic
Staple Singers, yet there isn't any overlap in material -- so there's no "I'll Take You There," for instance, but there's an equally authoritative version of "Can You Get to That," an early
Funkadelic pearl covered acoustically on
One True Vine.
Staples celebrated her 79th birthday on one of these two evenings, adding even more joy and gratitude to
Benjamin Booker's "Take Us Back" and
Curtis Mayfield's "Let's Do It Again" while deepening the resilience and inspiration in
Tweedy and
Staples' post-November 2016 freedom song "No Time for Cryin'" and
Talking Heads' "Slippery People." (Veteran singer Donny Gerard is particularly great in Pops Staples' role on the latter.)
Staples sounds more energized and in control here than on the 2008 set. When she beams, "It just ain't no stoppin' me, is it?" there's no evident objection from the appreciative audience. ~ Andy Kellman