Staples’ heart still as strong as her voice

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 8:27 a.m.

The beauty of talking with gospel legend Mavis Staples is that, if you are lucky, she just might break into song.

And when she does, be it a verse, a couple of verses, or even a trailing hum, that distinctive warm rumbling voice takes you to that place she so often speaks of. "I sing from the heart," Staples says via telephone from her Chicago home. "What comes from the heart reaches the heart."

At 64, Staples has lived a storied life. As a former member of the Staple Singers, her family tales are America's tales. She's marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., recorded with Bob Dylan, sung with Janis Joplin and opened for Jimi Hendrix.

The Staples' message was of possibility and faith. They were often referred to as "God's greatest hit makers" and the "first family of gospel."

And with her new CD, "Have a Little Faith," released this month on Alligator Records, Mavis Staples is still spreading the good word.

On Sunday, Staples will be performing at the Club at the Cannery. Joining her onstage, of course, will be her sister Yvonne. After decades singing with her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, and siblings, Staples prefers not to go it alone. "I tried that," Staples said. "We took the year 2001 off so we could know what this Alzheimer's is about. (Staples' sister Cleotha has Alzheimer's disease.)

"I did about three concerts and after that I said, 'Yvonne, you have got to sing background. I have to hear at least one Staples voice. It's just too strange, too empty without hearing at least one of the Staple singers.'"

Though Staples has put out several solo albums since her first effort on Stax in 1969 (including two produced by Prince) and is, with her family, a 1999 inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recording her own album at this stage of her career proved difficult. She put her own money into the CD, paying the musicians, the studio time and the cost of the CDs. Then she started calling record companies.

"Still, you have to prove yourself," Staples said. "It's a shame they want to put us out to pasture. Why should we not contribute our music to the world? My voice is my gift from God. I still have so many messages to get out there. I still have a lot to contribute to this world."

On Sunday expect to hear Staple Singers standards and songs from her new CD, which features such bluesy, gospel songs as "A Dying Man's Plea" and "Step Into the Light." The Victory Missionary Baptist Church Choir and the Second Baptist Church Choir will open the show.

"It's going to be a welcomed change for what the music has been out there," Staples said, referring to the new CD. "It just brings people back to where we should be. After 9/11 I have a next-door neighbor who's living in fear. You can't live looking over your shoulder.

"Enjoy your life. Know that God's going to take care of us. Everything is going to be all right. I fear no one, nothing, nobody, but the Lord."

For those who question their faith, Staples gives warm reassurance in the song "God is Not Sleeping": "God is not sleeping, you got to believe it / He's the only one I know who never refuse me, never deceived me / In the struggles of my life he's right there beside me / When the prayers go up the blessings come down, yes he is workin'."

Staples was just a child when the Staples Singers began its career of bringing gospel mixed with folk and Delta blues to the people.

The family group formed spontaneously in Chicago when "Pops" brought a guitar into the family living room and taught his children to sing in harmony.

"My aunt Katie lived with us, she said, 'Y'all sound pretty good. I believe I want y'all to sing at my church,' " Staples said. "We did and the people clapped us back three times. My dad said, 'We're going to learn more songs.' The rest was history."

The group's first album, "Uncloudy Day," was released in 1956. By then the family was already highly regarded.

"It sold like an R&B album," Staples said. "I was singing bass. I was a little skinny knock-kneed girl. They'd put it on the radio and say, 'This is little 15-year-old Mavis'... People would bet that it wasn't."

"When we were performing, just as we finished the song in harmony, Pervis would step up. The audience would start saying, 'I told you so,' then I would sneak up and sing."

Staples was still in high school at the time and would miss class on Mondays because the family was singing the night before.

"As soon as I graduated school, everybody quit their jobs and we hit the road," she said.

"We opened for Janis and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Bee Gees. We didn't think anything of it. They were calling us from everywhere. We were singing at blues festivals, jazz festivals, folk festivals. Cannonball Adderley recorded 'Why Am I Treated So Bad?' "

The group's protest songs began when Pops Staples met Martin Luther King Jr. after church while the family was in Montgomery to perform.

"Back at the hotel Pops said, 'I like this man. I like his message. If he can preach it. We can sing it,' " Staples said.

"So we wrote 'March Up Freedom's Highway' for the march from Selma to Montgomery. We joined the movement. 'Why Am I Treated So Bad?' was written for Little Rock Nine ... After things started getting better we moved on to message songs, 'Respect Yourself' and 'I'll Take You There.' "

Moving forward

"Have a Little Faith" began in response to 9/11, when Jim Tullio called her to sing a song he wrote,"In Times Like These."

The song was meant to be a charity effort, but the plan fell through and Staples put out a solo album.

More recently Staples sang at the Democratic National Convention. She has recorded with Natalie Merchant, John Prine and Alison Krauss. Last year she recorded the duet "Gotta Change My Way of Thinking" with longtime friend Bob Dylan for "Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan." The song garnered the two a Grammy nomination.

The two have known each other since Staples was age 18.

"My father was crazy about Bobby," Staples said. "So we ended recording at least seven Dylan tunes, including 'Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.' 'Masters of War.' His message was so similar to ours."

Mavis is working on a CD she and her father began in 1997 as a last Staple Singers album. Her father died during the production, and Cleotha was in the first stages of Alzheimer's, so Staples decided to make the CD a tribute to Pops Staples, who led the family musically, emotionally and spiritually through all those years.

"We've always been a really close-knit family," Staples said. "Mom and Pops teaching us to love our family, love our neighbors. We've been brought up in church.

"It's been a beautiful life." They'd put it on the radio and say, 'This is little 15-year-old Mavis'... People would bet that it wasn't."

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