Mavis Staples - Livin’ on a High Note, album review: 'still fighting the good fight'

Mavis Staples and family group the Staple Singers were synonymous with the US civil rights movement.

Alongside producer M Ward, the veteran soul, folk and gospel vocalist revisits that era on MLK Song, a sparse yet stirring adaptation of a Martin Luther King sermon.

Dr King’s in surprising company on an album written for Staples by artists ranging from Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and rootsy band The Head and the Heart to Nick Cave, who supplied subdued spiritual Jesus Lay Down Beside Me. The most bizarre collaborator is noise pop act Tune-Yards on the song Action, though its hollering and harmonies are an album highlight.

Staples is more reflective on History Now – sublime songwriting from Neko Case – which recalls the singer’s 1960s political activism. At 76, she’s still fighting the good fight.

(Anti)