With the recent passing of her sister Yvonne and her dear friend Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples is one of our few remaining links to an extraordinary time when the gospel tradition and the fight for social justice were deeply and movingly entwined.
“It’s kind of unbelievable to me that I’m still recording,” said the 79 year old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Kennedy Center Honoree Mavis Staples. “I never thought I would still be singing at my age, and people seem to really want to hear me, they know me, they give me love—I’m just overwhelmed, really. I thank God every night before I go to bed and then again every morning for waking up.”
Today Staples is announcing Live in London, a new live album recorded over two nights at London’s Union Chapel (which she calls “the best place in the world to sing”) and produced by Staples herself. Live in London reveals that the singer retains astonishing power after seventy years as a performer and that while her repertoire continues to expand her philosophy is unchanged since her days in the groundbreaking family group, the Staples Singers. Live in London will be released in February 2019.
