Mavis Staples - Have a Little Faith

Genre r&b Publisher Alligator Records External Links Alligator Records

The star of the Staples Singers is also at the heart of one of rock music's greatest cinematic moments: when she steals the thunder from the Band's Levon Helm and Rick Danko, giving her all on "The Weight" in The Last Waltz. Certainly, the best of her Staples hits -- like "I'll Take You There" and others showcased on Stax's 1975 best-of -- represent pop-gospel crossover at its best. And even at 64, she's still in fine vocal form -- witness her moving version of "Hard Times Come Again No More" on the recent compilation Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster .

But this well regarded item is not where she makes a comeback. The problem isn't necessarily her new folkie sideman-collaborators -- their mild studio funk isn't overwhelming, but singers like Bonnie Raitt have done well in that mode time and again. The problem is the sappy material they provide her with -- you would never have known the mushily vague "In Times Like These" was a tribute to two friends who died on 9/11 unless you happened to read it in the liner notes. In such a bland context, battered warhorses like "A Dying Man's Last Plea" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" -- both of which Staples resuscitates and then some -- can only leap out of the speakers by comparison.