Mavis Staples, the Grammy-winning, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer, has been selling records and packing music halls for more than a half-century, and she remains a powerful performer with a glorious voice and a spellbinding stage presence.
On Friday, she packed the pews at Little Rock’s Christ Church.
“We’ve come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, some inspiration and some positive vibrations,” the 74-year-old singer told the audience.
And she delivered what she promised with a set of about a dozen songs that fired up the crowd from start to finish.
They included Staple Singers’ popular standards, including “I’ll Take You There,” a single that rose to the top of the charts in 1972.
There were the civil-rights anthems, too, including “Eyes on the Prize” and “Freedom Highway,” a song her father,Roebuck “Pops” Staples, wrote in 1965 to commemorate the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
She also performed “The Weight” - a song from the Woodstock catalog made famous by Elaine native Levon Helm.
There were selections from her latest album, One True Vine, plus a spiritual or two.
During the roughly 75-minute concert, Staples sat in a chair at times and leaned on a cane occasionally, telling the audience that she recently had knee-replacement surgery. But her physical discomfort didn’t dampen her joy. She laughed often and smiled almost constantly, urging the audience to celebrate with her.
She also sang and spoke about the sunset of life. “Pops” Staples died in 2000, and Mavis’ sister, Cleotha, passed away in February.
“One of these mornings, and it won’t be long, you’re gonna look for Mavis and I’ll be gone,” she said.
Staples has performed in central Arkansas periodically, including a 1959 stop at Robinson Auditorium, where the Staple Singers shared a Sunday revival stage with a Detroit preacher named C.L. Franklin and his teenage daughter, Aretha.
“Man, we had some times in Little Rock,” she said, vowing to return.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 10/12/2013