Tweedy To Produce Mavis Staples Record

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

This album is a choice for Amazon's create your own deal of the day. With the discount, it comes down to $4.99

 

Get it here.Make sure you copy and paste the discount code, because the discount isn't automatic.

 

[LouieB]

Out today....nice review by Gret Kot...

 

LouieB

[Magnetized]

This album is a choice for Amazon's create your own deal of the day. With the discount, it comes down to $4.99

 

Get it here.Make sure you copy and paste the discount code, because the discount isn't automatic.

 

 

The link didn't take me directly to the page, but it was easy enough to find on Amazon's home page under Create Your Own Deal. I just did it and the discount was applied accurately. Listening to Miss Mavis now, singing Randy Newman's Losing You. Nice!

 

Edit: Mildly annoyed that the download did not include composer. I can go in and manually edit on iTunes, but it seems like it would've been easy enough to include that info in the download.

 

Thanks for posting this.

Edited September 14, 2010 by Wilco Me

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

That's weird, because the link worked this morning. This looks like it should work.

[RaspberryJam]

Thanks for the reminders, friends.

[Synthesizer Patel]

i quite like this album, but i don't like jeff tweedy's production on it. it's way too safe. it's like the musical equivalent of smearing vasaline on the camera lense - and you don't need to do that with her voice. i think i'm comparing it to "don't give up on me" by solomon burke, and it doesn't stand up to that in its production; also the dixie hummingbirds "diamond jubilation" - both those seemed a lot more vitalized. oh, and the johnny cash work with rick rubin.

[bjorn_skurj]

i quite like this album, but i don't like jeff tweedy's production on it. it's way too safe. it's like the musical equivalent of smearing vasaline on the camera lense - and you don't need to do that with her voice. i think i'm comparing it to "don't give up on me" by solomon burke, and it doesn't stand up to that in its production; also the dixie hummingbirds "diamond jubilation" - both those seemed a lot more vitalized. oh, and the johnny cash work with rick rubin.

I hope you didn't listen to it via some low-bitrate mp3's before forming your opinion.

[hazel]

really enjoying this a lot, my favorites are "you are not alone", "in christ there is no east or west", "only the lord knows", "wrote a song for everyone", "too close/on my way to heaven", "creep along moses"

[Synthesizer Patel]

I hope you didn't listen to it via some low-bitrate mp3's before forming your opinion.

 

i'm affraid i did. well, not low-bitrate, but it was mp3. he recorded her voice ok, i just have a problem with everything else.

[LouieB]

Pretty cool album, double vinyl with a CD in a gatefold at a relatively hefty price (I guess we are getting used to that by now.) I have not had time to hear it all, but kudos to the Chicago female back-up all stars, Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor.

 

It looks like this may be the one gospel record in a whole bunch of hipsters record collections....

 

LouieB

[Guest Jules]

Really need to listen to this on a good system or on a CD in the car.

[ThisIsNowhere]

I'm late to thread, but what's the general consensus? From what I've read this sounds like a must get.

[lost highway]

i'm affraid i did. well, not low-bitrate, but it was mp3. he recorded her voice ok, i just have a problem with everything else.

 

Tweedy produced it, he didn't engineer it. Still a pretty big say in the sound, though. To me it sounds like a good, warm, no frills recording.

[Sparky speaks]

If Tweedy had nothing to do with this album, I wouldn't give it a listen. So with that in mind, it is pretty good but I still would not buy it. If I did, I'd end up listening to it a few times and probably never play it again. I would add the two Tweedy compositions to my Wilco collection and that would be the end of it. Don't get me wrong, I loved Mavis at Solid Sound. She ranks as the best opening act I've seen for Wilco in the twelve times I've seen them. Just not what I would listen to regularly.

[jcroach]

I'm curious which tracks Jeff and Pat played on. Is that broken down in the liner notes?

[Guest Jules]

I'm curious which tracks Jeff and Pat played on. Is that broken down in the liner notes?

Yes.

[LouieB]

I'm late to thread, but what's the general consensus? From what I've read this sounds like a must get.

See my comment above...this is a very good gospel album, not a rock or soul album (although it has some soulful songs on it.) If you don't like someone singing about Jesus, you won't like this, but it has some great musicianship and the Chicago all star back-up session of Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor and of course the Wilcomen. Pretty cool all the way around and great sounding.

 

LouieB

 

 

 

And LouieB's comment on hipsters adding this to their collections -- awesome!

Thanks for noticing...I figured that comment was good once and not again...many folks will buy this album because of the Wilco connection who never listen to gospel music ever....

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

Thanks for noticing...I figured that comment was good once and not again...many folks will buy this album because of the Wilco connection who never listen to gospel music ever....

 

LouieB

 

Probably somewhat similar to all the White Stripe fans who bought Van Lear Rose.

[LouieB]

Probably somewhat similar to all the White Stripe fans who bought Van Lear Rose.

Somewhat, but at least that album has mostly secular songs. 2/3 of this album are clearly religious in nature and the others sound gospel like, even the rock songs. The first Tweedy song is a love song but comes across as a religious song. Adminttedly I have not listened to the entire album yet, but I like Mavis no matter what she sings.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

Somewhat, but at least that album has mostly secular songs. 2/3 of this album are clearly religious in nature and the others sound gospel like, even the rock songs. The first Tweedy song is a love song but comes across as a religious song. Adminttedly I have not listened to the entire album yet, but I like Mavis no matter what she sings.

 

LouieB

 

I respect her, but the music is not my cup of tea.

[LouieB]

I respect her, but the music is not my cup of tea.

That's valid...hence my somewhat snarky comment that alot of folks will buy this album because of the connection to Wilco, not because the music really speaks to them. In some ways this is true of me also, but I also really enjoy Mavis. Most times when we discuss her more recent work, no one picks up the discussion because few people have heard the last three albums, some of which are excellent (as I say, the one on Alligator is particularly good and started her late career resurgence...). The Hideout live album where Jeff met her is also excellent and the Ry Cooder civil rights album is interesting but to my taste slightly cold considering the material.

 

If memory serves she is also on a Joe Henry comp with several other older soul figures and she doesn't fare as well as the others. I need to pull that one out again and listen.

 

On a personal note I gave a burned copy to a co-worker I thought would enjoy it (sorry to admit to this, but getting the music out sometimes IS important and I rarely do this...) and it turned out my coworker used to live near the Staples and attended parties at their house here in Chicago. Small small world. She enjoyed the "preview" of this album alot.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

That's valid...hence my somewhat snarky comment that alot of folks will buy this album because of the connection to Wilco, not because the music really speaks to them. In some ways this is true of me also, but I also really enjoy Mavis. Most times when we discuss her more recent work, no one picks up the discussion because few people have heard the last three albums, some of which are excellent (as I say, the one on Alligator is particularly good and started her late career resurgence...). The Hideout live album where Jeff met her is also excellent and the Ry Cooder civil rights album is interesting but to my taste slightly cold considering the material.

 

If memory serves she is also on a Joe Henry comp with several other older soul figures and she doesn't fare as well as the others. I need to pull that one out again and listen.

 

On a personal note I gave a burned copy to a co-worker I thought would enjoy it (sorry to admit to this, but getting the music out sometimes IS important and I rarely do this...) and it turned out my coworker used to live near the Staples and attended parties at their house here in Chicago. Small small world. She enjoyed the "preview" of this album alot.

 

LouieB

 

The other day, I read some article about her where she mentioned something about "almost being married to Bob Dylan". I don't recall ever hearing that before.

[LouieB]

The other day, I read some article about her where she mentioned something about "almost being married to Bob Dylan". I don't recall ever hearing that before.

This has been a regular piece of her interviews in recent years. Apparently Bob was interested and spoke to Pops Staples about it and he said Bob should ask Mavis instead. I don't know when this happened but she tells this story frequently.

 

Of course this must have been a long time ago...when you look at old pictures of the Staples you can kind of understand why. Mavis is somewhat, but not alot older than Bob.

 

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

Two years, I think.

[LouieB]

Back to the album for a minute....

 

This thing seems to have landed on Wilcoland with a thud. Very few people have come on here to say they actually bought it and express any opinions. Maybe streaming it on NPR wasn't such a good idea.

 

LouieB