Mavis Staples-Jeff Tweedy fusion
Of the several Tiny Desk concerts to occur at NPR since my arrival, my can't-miss show was Mavis Staples. Her coming album had Wilco chief Jeff Tweedy as producer, and he'd written two of its songs. When the first, You're Not Alone, hit Pitchfork, the song was musically strong and subtly, editorially provocative. Like Woody Allen's writing for the array of characters in Vicky Christina Barcelona, the writing was clearly Jeff, but the voice came across as almost equally Staples and Tweedy.
A broken home, a broken heart
Isolated and afraid
Open up, this is a raid
I wanna get it through to you
You're not alone
In Chicago terms, as much old-time South Side as modern North Side.
At the Tiny Desk concert, which will appear online sometime (look for it here or follow here on Twitter), Staples sang that song and the other Tweedy composition, Only the Lord Knows. Same effect. Effortlessly half Staples, half Tweedy. You're going to enjoy the song when you hear it. No preaching here. It's half inside a church door and half just outside.
Then she brought out CCR's Wrote a Song for Everyone, an underrated tune (off Green River, where nearly every song is catchy-good) and a CCR favorite of mine (and also on her new album), and closed with a tidbit of the song that ensured her family's fame, I'll Take You There.
If you enjoy in any way what I'm telling you, in addition to checking out the Tiny Desk and the full album when they arrive, read Staples' recent interview with the Metro Times, Detroit's alt-weekly. The conversation is a long but wealthy one. Her on the new album's recording session:
And he had some songs that he had chosen like really classic gospel songs "“ two of them that Pops used to play for me when I was a kid. I said, "Tweedy, Where did you get these songs?" One was "Wonderful Savior," and "Creep along Moses." I said, "These songs, this is the Golden Gate Jubilee Singers; these songs were recorded before I was probably born. Back in the '30s and '40s. You're taking me back to my childhood." But I love these songs. I never thought I'd be singing these.
We started recording in December, and this was the coldest winter Chicago ever had. So he gets this idea: "Mavis we're going to go in the stairwell, we're going to go in the corridor and sing this." I said, "Not me." Man, it's cold out there. I mean it was freezing. He said, "Somebody get Mavis a cap and a scarf and a coat. Get her some gloves too."
Update: Good quote for a hot summer day, right?
I'd planned to end the post there until I woke up in the middle of the night last night… or this morning… and found Only the Lord Knows had surfaced at Staples' Lollapalooza performance yesterday. Also, Tweedy joined on stage for Wrote a Song for Everyone (video here) and You're Not Alone (video). Introducing the former, Staples says, "You know it's such a wonderful thing — we're all Chicago people. Yes, indeed."
One more thing: The Sun-Times covers the show and sits down with Staples and Tweedy. It's an enjoyable read. At one point, they talk Gaga. "You just can't sit on your butt and make Lady Gaga happen," Tweedy says. "That's more energy than I got, for sure." Team up!
Update 8/10: NPR has posted video and audio of Staples' Tiny Desk.
September 15th, 2010 at 11:49 PM
[...] After Mavis Staples, the NPR Tiny Desk concert I needed to be at this summer was Chuck Brown. He was scheduled to come a few weeks ago and then had to cancel, sick. Today, he finally arrived, and he did indeed arrive. In a move that NPR Music chiefs compared on e-mail to Springsteen going plugged on Unplugged, Brown brought his eight-piece band — both musicians and vocalists — and all kinds of amps. [...]