The incomparable Mavis Staples is performing at the George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Center Theater on Saturday, March 3. Staples is best known as the voice of The Staples Singers who, quite frankly, scored the music of the civil rights movement with a combination of gospel, soul and R&B. She’s had a remarkable solo career and collaborated with everyone from Prince and Van Morrison to Gorillaz, Neko Case and Bon Iver. Bob Freaking Dylan asked for her hand in marriage, and Staples turned him down! She’s a legend. You get the point.
Her latest release, If All I Was Was Black, is her third collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. It’s a powerful protest album for the modern era, filled with Staples’s signature mixture of hope, struggle, pain and uplifting ambition. If “No Time For Crying” doesn’t get you fired up and ready to do something, then you should check your pulse.
The show, which is presented by Park City Institute, will feature highlights from throughout Staples’s career from the timeless “Freedom Highway” to cuts from her newer albums and hopefully a few from my personal favorite “Only For The Lonely.” Tickets for the show start at $29 and can be purchased on the Park City Institute’s website.
1750 Kearns Blvd, Park City, 435-655-3114, parkcity.institute
