REVIEW: MAVIS STAPLES - SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD

4/5

A Mavis Grace

We live in a beautiful world. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. As Coldplay once sang. Even if, at times (like these), it's a sad one. But don't panic, Mavis Staples is back. Back in 2019 the legendary Staples Singer singer and iconic civil rights activist gave us the instant classic of 'We Get By'. Written entirely by one of our generation's greatest, singer/songwriter Ben Harper. Now, six years and a collaborative album with Levon Helm (2022's 'Carry Me Home') later, it's a 'Sad and Beautiful World', post-COVID and with presidential problems that affect the watching and waking world almost at war. Yet Mavis is back to staple it all this bad weather together, like Jack Johnson, at 86 years of age. All on the same New Music Friday that Willie Nelson, at 91, gives us his 78th album, and second this year, for the 'Workin' Man'. As 'Willie Sings Merle'. All in honour of his late, great friend and frequent, classic collaborator, Merle Haggard.

Hey, young world, listen to these wise words. Whether making music with Maggie (Rogers), or sitting at the doily graced table of her living room, Mavis Staples invites you into her home to hear her heart. The soul singer stirs with singles, covers and new classics across the board. 'Godspeed', Mavis Staples. Like the sign of your new call to embracing arms. Your new 'Chicago' classic, singing for the Windy City, like the late, great Prince did for 'Baltimore', down to the concrete of the streets. "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in", Staples sings over a Leonard Cohen 'Anthem', channelling Hemingway. Our collective world may seem broken now, but it's healing with helping hands like these. This may just be, not only, one of the best, but also the most important records of the year, yearning that 'We Got To Have Peace'. Mavis doing for her music what country star Johnny Cash did with his Rick Rubin 'American Recordings' in the winter of his life. Staples even covers the great country songbook's 'A Satisfied Mind', like not only Cash did, but Ben Harper once did, too, with the visionary Blind Boys Of Alabama.

Iconic, like the cover, this album is artwork in itself. The purity of songwriting and soulful deliverance of the perfect penmanship. From the 'Human Mind', to these 'Hard Times' we're living in. Especially in the country that used to give us the dream of the world. "If you ever hear that thunder/Put your eye to the sky, boy, and wonder/Maybe there's a kingdom above the weather/Oh, and whether you're gonna get on in/Is up to you", she warns on the familiar brutality of 'Beautiful Strangers'. Apologizing to Freddie Gray, on behalf of those who took his life, for what is now her most influential and incendiary track of the times we are living in, right now, that have needed to be a-changin'. It's why the title track hits even harder with lines like, "Sometimes days go speeding past/Sometimes this one seems like the last." Speaking not only to the impermanence of one's individual life, but also, these dark days and the pain we can't seem to make past. The same racism and hate is as alive as the day Mavis Staples and her sisters sang against it as young stars, but like Ben, she believes in a better way. One that, in closing, tells us, 'Everybody Needs Love'. That we do...and we need to show it, too. Life is a beautiful struggle. Let's work at making it easier...together. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: ''Chicago', 'Beautiful Strangers', 'Anthem'.

Spin This: Mavis Staples - 'We Get By'.

REVIEW: WILLIE NELSON - WORKIN' MAN: WILLIE SINGS MERLE

4/5

Working On The Highway

Friendship is the foundation of everything. Love, marriage and family. At 92 years young, American and country icon Willie Nelson has met many on the long and winding road of his life. But with his 78th album (amazing), he honours one of the best. Nelson has been giving us no half measures over the last couple of calendars. Forget that, over each and every decade he's strummed strings and breathed into microphones across stages and plains. But ever since 'The Border' of 2024, he's been on a tear like a runaway American dream Springsteen sings about from books of Bob. Even though it was far from that, the 'Last Leaf On The Tree', last November, was beautiful. And this year he already showed us 'Oh What A Beautiful World' back in April. Now, this November, in fellow beautiful black and white, he's still a 'Workin' Man', as 'Willie Sings Merle', set off by the strong single of the 'Workin' Man Blues'. Two albums a year from a ninety-something? Now, that's work!

It's not a young man's game, or world any more, as the greats come out the gates this New Music Friday. Not just Willie, but soul Staples Singer, and activist, Mavis Staples with another classic ('Sad And Beautiful World') to follow up her iconic return of 2019's 'We Get By'. Meanwhile, all the kids are trying to use new self-aggrandizing terms on podcasts and social media to tell us how humble they are, when these legends just put the proof in their pudding. Now, that's really letting someone cook. Instead of talking about ourselves, we should acknowledge and honour others, and that's exactly what this 'Workin' Man' does. Dialled to eleven tracks, Willie sings the songs of his late friend and frequent collaborator, Merle Haggard, who passed almost a decade ago. It's a legacy recording, produced in part by Mickey Raphael, recorded in Nashville's East Iris and Blackbird studios, plus the Pedernales Recording of Spicewood, Texas, USA. All for almost forty minutes of fantastic music to take you away in the shotgun of your car.

Haggard was one of the greats, his influence was just that inspirational. With Willie, he recorded four studio duet albums for the record. It all began in 1983, with 'Pancho & Lefty', and ended in 2015, with 'Django and Jimmie', one year before Merle's death. As classic as the pair of men in black sitting on a leather couch for the album cover, this set takes off on 'Silver Wings'. Singing all the little bits of country for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 'Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down' ("Well, each night I leave the barroom when it's over/Not feeling any pain at closing time/But tonight your memory found me much too sober/I couldn’t drink enough to keep you off of my mind") shows you can't even turn to booze when you're bruised. Whereas, 'Today I Started Loving You Again' is a beautiful affirmation to the vows of love renewed. 'Swinging Doors', mind you, is classic 'Hello Walls', Willie with lines like, "I've got swinging doors, a jukebox, and a barstool/And my new home has a flashing neon sign/Stop by and see me anytime you want to/'Cause I'm always here at home 'til closing time/I'm always here at home 'til closing time." The neon glare above the pool table green, illuminating the lonely yearn. Playing the winner, 'Okie From Mskogee' keeps everything rolling like those dice of life. 

'Mama Tried' to make a good man, and she did with this one who tells us, through another, that, "Dear old daddy, rest his soul/Left my mom a heavy load/She tried so very hard to fill his shoes/Working hours without rest/Wanted me to have the best." These records aren't just legacy, they're legend all the way to the 'Ramblin' Fever' closing, with you know what kind of medicinal prescription. This compelling collection could really bookmark the great American songbook, somewhere north of a Nashville skyline. Even some of the darker turned pages, like 'I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink'. 'Somewhere Between' all this, is the hope for better days to come, like the old ones of old glory, sang here, as Willie and Merle fly the flag from here to the great beyond that Staples sings about also, this week. Closing in on a century, this man can dream too, and on the penultimate powerful, 'If We Make It Through December', the sage says, "If we make it through December/Everything's gonna be all right, I know/'Cause it's the coldest time of winter/And I shiver when I see the falling snow/If we make it through December/Got plans to be in a warmer town come summertime/Maybe even California." Sadly, this album also marks the last record Nelson shares with both long-serving band members Paul English and his elder sister Bobbie Nelson. Yet the Family Band plays on in the hereafter. For Merle. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Workin' Man Blues', 'Today I Started Loving You Again', 'If We Make It Through December'.

Spin This: Willie Nelson - 'Oh What A Beautiful World'.