Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” 3x Grammy Award-winning Mavis Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She is the last surviving member of The Staple Singers, her family’s band that she rose to fame through. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.” She continued to release solo albums throughout the following decades; and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Arcade Fire, Nona Hendryx, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne. She is an inductee of both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Staples will return to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, March 12, 2023 at 7pm as part of the Pepsi Rock Series Driven by North American Motor Car. Kicking off the evening is a performance by GA-20. The dynamic, throwback blues trio are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll intersect. Since first forming in 2018, GA-20 has drawn inspiration for their old-school sounds from the music they love by artists such as Otis Rush, J.B. Lenoir, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Hound Dog Taylor, Lloyd Price, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and so many others. Mavis Staples’ Playhouse performance comes on the heels of her 2022 album, “Carry Me Home,” a collaboration with Levon Helm. Captured live in the summer of 2011, it showcases two of the past century’s most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. Do not miss the opportunity to see this iconic artist in the Playhouse’s intimate 500-seat theater.
Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a GRAMMY Award winner; a chart-topping soul, gospel, and R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama’s White House. Over the past few decades alone, she’s collaborated with everyone from Prince and Bob Dylan to Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, blown away countless festivalgoers from Newport Folk and Glastonbury to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and graced the airwaves on Fallon, Colbert, Ellen, Austin City Limits, Jools Holland, and the GRAMMYs.
Mavis Staples rose to fame as a member of her family’s band The Staple Singers, (she is the last surviving member of that band). By the mid-1960s The Staple Singers, inspired by her father Pops’ close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again”. In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album. She continued to release solo albums throughout the following decades; and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Arcade Fire, Nona Hendryx, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne. Her eighth studio album You Are Not Alone (2010), earned critical acclaim and became her first album as a soloist to reach number one on a Billboard chart, peaking atop the Top Gospel Albums chart. It also earned Staples her first Grammy Award win. Following this, she released the albums: One True Vine (2013), Livin’ on a High Note (2016), If All I Was Was Black (2017), and We Get By (2019); and was featured on the single “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier.
Staples’ current tour comes on the heels of her 2022 album, “Carry Me Home,” a collaboration with Levon Helm recorded live in 2011. Staples came to The Barn in Woodstock to perform as part of Helm’s renowned Midnight Ramble series, and the ensuing concert would mark a personal high watermark for both artists. “Carry Me Home” showcases two of the past century’s most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. Though Staples and Helm got on like childhood pals, the two were already both stars in their own right by the time they first met at the 1976 filming of “The Last Waltz”. Critics would go on to cite The Staple Singers’ collaboration with The Band on “The Weight” as a high point of the film, and Mavis and Levon would remain close friends in the decades to come, but it was unclear if the pair would ever get to sing together again after Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. Neither Staples nor Helm knew that this 2011 concert would be their last performance together—the collection marks one of Helm’s final recordings before his death—and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tunes like “This May Be The Last Time” and “Farther Along” take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that’s at once a time capsule and a memorial, a blissful homecoming and a fond farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert—and friendship—preserved for the ages.
GA-20 clearly is on to something big. It’s a movement, a new traditional blues revival. The dynamic, throwback blues trio — guitarist/vocalist Pat Faherty, guitarist Matthew Stubbs, and drummer Tim Carman — are disciples of the place where traditional blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll intersect. Since first forming in 2018, GA-20 has drawn inspiration for their old-school sounds from the music they love by artists such as Otis Rush, J.B. Lenoir, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Hound Dog Taylor, Lloyd Price, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and so many others. Performing with what feels like reckless abandon, GA-20 brings a timeless immediacy to every song they play with a sound that continues to grow and evolve. Matt Stubbs is a 14-year veteran of legendary blues master Charlie Musselwhite’s touring band, and has performed with James Cotton and John Hammond, among many others. Stubbs met Faherty in Boston, and their mutual love of traditional electric blues, R&B, and rock ‘n’ roll led them to write, perform and eventually record their modern vision of this life-altering music. GA-20 quickly drew a large following, and the band soon signed with acclaimed soul/R&B label Colemine Records, releasing their debut, Lonely Soul, in 2019 to widespread critical and popular acclaim. The album – with guests Charlie Musselwhite and Luther Dickinson – premiered in the #2 position on the Billboard Blues Chart. With new drummer Tim Carman on board, their 2020 EP Live Vol. 1, debuted at #1. Medium.com declared, “This is the kind of music that travels through time while taking from the era where it was born and turning it into something fresh. Dirty and raw…timeless and modern.”
For more information or to purchase touchless print at home tickets ($80-100), go online at www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org or visit or call the box office at (203) 438-5795. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge Road, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT and is committed to keeping the arts alive and available to all.
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