Hailed by NPR as \u201cone of America\u2019s defining voices of freedom and peace,\u201d Mavis Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She\u2019s a civil rights icon, a multiple Grammy\u00ae winner, a chart-topping soul\/gospel\/R&B pioneer with her family group The Staple Singers, a member of both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient, and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy\u2019s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama\u2019s White House. Staples has collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire and Hozier, blown away countless festivalgoers from Newport Folk and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, performed with The Band at The Last Waltz, and graced the airwaves, from major talk shows to\u00a0<\/span>Austin City Limits<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At a time when most artists begin to wind down, Staples ramped things up, releasing a trio of critically acclaimed albums in her 70s with Wilco\u2019s Jeff Tweedy that prompted\u00a0<\/span>Pitchfork\u00a0<\/span><\/i>to rave that \u201cher voice has only gained texture and power over the years\u201d and\u00a0<\/span>People\u00a0<\/span><\/i>to proclaim that she \u201cprovides the comfort of a higher power.\u201d In between records with Tweedy, Staples teamed up with a slew of other younger artists\u2014Bon Iver\u2019s Justin Vernon, Nick Cave, Valerie June,\u00a0<\/span>tUnE-yArDs<\/span>, and M. Ward among others\u2014for\u00a0<\/span>Livin<\/span><\/i>\u2019 On A High Note<\/span><\/i>, an album that first introduced her to Ben Harper, who would go on to write an entire album of material that became Staples\u2019s 12th studio album, 2019\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>We Get By<\/span><\/i>\u2014a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy. Backed by her longtime touring band, Staples breathes extraordinary life into Harper\u2019s compositions, delivering roof-raising performances with both a youthful vigor and a commanding maturity. The arrangements are spare but weighty, matched by Harper\u2019s suitably lean and thoughtful production, and Staples seizes the opportunity to showcase her remarkable and continued evolution as an artist, one still growing and exploring more than half a century into her storied career.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them. I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I\u2019m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.\u201d \u2014 Mavis Staples<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mavis Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"tags":[198,197],"tribe_events_cat":[190],"acf":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Scottsdale Center For The Performing Arts","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/4401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/4401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4401"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsdaleperformingarts.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=4401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}