"The Staple Singers"

While watching that excellent "Soul to Soul" documentary I was suddenly reminded of Mavis Staples - the mighty Mavis, majestic singer with truly God's given, magnificent voice and a beautiful charisma - I always loved her but somehow she had slipped under my radar until now i realized she is in fact still very much alive and active so I dived in my music collection and re-visited some of her older discography. For decades this undisputed giant of American music was part of family group "The Staple Singers" led by father Roebuck "Pops" Staples and sang along her brother and two sisters - she has constantly refused offers to go solo and firmly stayed group member until father died and group finally disbanded but had performed as solo act since than and recently won "Grammy" for her work.

Some of group's earliest work can be find on "Riverside" label and its wonderful, deeply committed gospel music - father, daughter and a son are singing and playing together while focus is on Mavis who was gifted with naturally soulful, unforgettable voice surprisingly mature for such a young girl (she was about 23 years old than).
"Pops" plays excellent guitar and family harmonies are out of this world, however the frame of this kind of music is somehow limiting because after a while it does sound a bit same.

Selection of three "Riverside" albums are now nicely collected on one CD that gives nice overview of family work trough early 1960s. They were always great musicians and  the blend of voices is truly stunning but judging from this perspective they had actually found their true sound just a little bit later on "Stax" where everything fell into a place. Nothing wrong with this music but it does sound a bit stately and too formal compared with what came after. While on "Stax" they are joyous and celebratory, here they are still mournful and bluesy. Still, on tracks like "Old Time Religion" it is clear the group can easy catch the fire when inspired.

I love "The Staples Singers" on "Stax" - it was match made in Heaven. They moved nicely with the times without sacrificing anything from their original sound, in fact they just got better by getting the right backing musicians and some real funky rhythms. "Soul Folk in Action" finds them in transition into a full-blown chart-topping hit makers and its all fine as it could be without sounding overtly commercial. Their cover of "Sittin' on the dock of the Bay" is right there with the original and the rest of equally high quality. In her interviews Mavis Staples had always claimed that it bothered her that all the attention was mostly on her, when the music was result of the whole family - its clear here that she was right because although yes, her voice was in the centre, her family supported her every step of the way and what they created was labour of love from everybody. On this album everything just clicked right.