MAVIS STAPLES LISTEN TO NEW SONG ‘ANYTIME’ ON YOUTUBE, SOUNDCLOUD AND SPOTIFY
BEN HARPER-PRODUCED STUDIO ALBUM ‘WE GET BY’ OUT MAY 10 VIA ANTI-
WATCH ALBUM TRAILER HERE
‘MAVIS AND FRIENDS: CELEBRATING 80 YEARS OF MAVIS STAPLES’ BIRTHDAY SHOWS THIS MAY FEAT. DAVID BYRNE, NORAH JONES, JASON ISBELL, ELLE KING + MORE
THE ROUNDHOUSE 4TH JULY & GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL
“I’m the messenger,” Mavis Staples says on the eve of her 80th birthday. “That’s my job—it has been for my whole life—and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”Today Staples has shared the funky new song “Anytime” that looks fearlessly to the future:
Mavis’s message—a clarion call to love, to faith, to justice, to brotherhood, to joy—lies at the heart of ‘We Get By’, Staples’ spectacular twelfth studio album and first full-length collaboration with multi-GRAMMY® Award-winner Ben Harper. Backed by her longtime touring band, Staples breathes extraordinary life into Harper’s compositions on the record, delivering roof-raising performances with both a youthful vigour and a commanding maturity.
The album’s cover also helps to convey Mavis’s powerful message; a commanding photograph by American photographer, author, musician and director Gordon Parks titled “Outside Looking In”, the image is part of a series of photographs published in Life as a photo essay titled “The Restraints: Open and Hidden,” which helped expose Americans to the effects of racial segregation.
“I come from a family of Mavis fans,” explained Harper. “So her music has been woven into the fabric of my life from the very start. When I got the call for this gig, it felt like my entire career, everything I’d ever written, had been pre-production for this.”
The release of ‘We Get By’ will also align with three celebratory shows that Mavis will spend among her musical friends. Commemorating her 80th birthday this year and presented by Newport Folk, the shows will take place at New York City’s Apollo Theater, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Los Angeles’s Theatre at Ace Hotel.
Called ‘Mavis & Friends: Celebrating 80 Years of Mavis Staples’, the trio of shows will feature Mavis and new special guests each night including David Byrne, Jason Isbell, Jon Batiste, John Prine, Elle King, Benjamin Booker and many more. Proceeds from the Mavis & Friends shows will go directly towards extending the Newport Folk Festivals Foundation’s support of music education programs in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles.“I just wanted the world to know that I made it to 80!” the 2016 Kennedy Center honoree frankly says of the reasons for the shows. “I am letting my fans know that I’m over the hill but now I’m going over the mountain.”
In June Mavis will be returning to Europe for a selection of festival and headline shows.
TOUR DATES
18/4 – Byron Bay, Australia – Byron Bay Bluesfest
20/4 – Byron Bay, Australia – Byron Bay Bluesfest
21/4 – Byron Bay, Australia – Byron Bay Bluesfest
23/4 – Auckland, New Zealand – The Civic w/ Tami Neilson
2/5 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
9/5 – New York, NY – Mavis & Friends: Celebrating 80 Years of Mavis Staples – SOLD OUT
15/5 – Nashville, TN – Mavis & Friends: Celebrating 80 Years of Mavis Staples
22/5 – Los Angeles, CA – Mavis & Friends: Celebrating 80 Years of Mavis Staples
31/5 – Ogden, UT – Ogden Music Festival
9/6 – Nelsonville, OH – Nelsonville Music Festival 2019
23/6 – Dublin, Ireland – Olympia Theatre
25/6 – Norrmalm, Sweden – Nalen
26/6 – 30/6 – Worthy Farm, UK – Glastonbury Festival 2019
27/6 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Theater Carré
28/6 – Antwerpen, Belgium – Open-Air Theatre
2/7 – Bath, UK – The Forum
4/7 – London, UK – Roundhouse
6/7 – Lyon, France – Theatres Romaines De Fourviere
16/7 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks w/ Norah Jones
17/7 – Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen
19/7 – Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
31/7 – Cape May, NJ – Cape May Convention Hall
1/8 – Vienna, VA – Filene Center at Wolf Trap w/ Lyle Lovett
3/8 – Lagrange, GA – Sweetland Amphitheatre at Boyd Park
6/9 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center for the Performing Arts w/ Brandi Carlile
21/9 – North Adams, MA – FreshGrass Festival
5/10 – Florence, AL – Shoals Fest
Pre-Order ‘We Get By’
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