At the age of 86, Mavis Staples is still pressing ahead with exciting new music – indeed, one of the most star-studded and resonant albums of her career is coming up. As she prepares to release it, she’ll be answering your questions.
That new album, Sad and Beautiful World – released on 7 November – includes a small galaxy of music legends orbiting around Staples at the centre. As well as covers of songs by Curtis Mayfield, Gillian Welch, Frank Ocean, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Porter Wagoner, plus US alt heroes Mark “Sparklehorse” Linkous and Kevin Morby, there are new songs, including one written for and about Staples by Hozier and Allison Russell.
Performing these alongside Staples are new-school admirers Katie Crutchfield (AKA Waxahatchee), MJ Lenderman and Justin Vernon (AKA Bon Iver), plus more august names: Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy and Derek Trucks.
Staples has amassed that kind of ensemble through the sheer pedigree of her work, stretching back to the mid-1950s when she was part of her family group the Staple Singers, who became a cornerstone of American gospel music and a key cultural voice in the civil rights movement – they twice topped the US singles charts. In the years since, Staples also put out solo albums and collaborated with stars including Prince, Aretha Franklin, David Byrne, and Bob Dylan, whom she was romantically involved with in the 1960s, even turning down a proposal of marriage from him.
Despite being a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree and the recipient of a lifetime achievement Grammy, she has never rested on past glories. After a hiatus caring for her sister Cleotha and mourning the death of her father Pops Staples, she returned to recording in the mid-00s, recording a string of successful albums including three with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy as producer. Another album, in collaboration with the Band’s Levon Helm shortly before his death, continued a connection with the Band that stretched back to the Staple Singers covering The Weight and appearing in The Last Waltz.
You can ask Staples about this astounding lifetime of music-making by posting your questions below, before 4pm BST on Thursday 23 October. We’ll publish her answers online on 30 October, and in print on 31 October.
