We Get By

Album review

Mavis Staples has lived a life in music dominated by keeping the faith and continuing the struggle. Once the lead voice in The Staple Singers and reborn as an Americana hero thanks to recent albums produced by Ry Cooder, M. Ward and Jeff Tweedy, Staples has a famously unshakable faith in her country and in humankind. But the current state of the world has convinced this friend of Dr. Martin Luther King and performer at JFK’s inauguration to gracefully spur change.

Staples and producer Ben Harper have created a natural musical setting for her considerable powers of passion and authority; it's simple, warm and funky, with plenty of space for ardent appeals. While the album title suggests endurance, it’s clear early on that activism, not resignation or anger, is the thrust here. Staples applies her expressive, grown-husky-yet-still-remarkably-supple voice on Brothers and Sisters to pour out the yearning: "Trouble in the land / Can’t trust that man / Bring us another plan / We’ve come too far to be lost."

We Get By wisely features Staples' seasoned, acutely-attuned-to-her-voice road band. Just as Roebuck "Pops" Staples' guitar was the other big instrument in The Staple Singers, Mavis now has another guitarist Rick Holmstrom, who leads all the tunes here with his reverb-inflected single note style.

Closing the album with One More Change to Make, where she proclaims, "Some things take a lifetime / Some things can’t wait," Mavis Staples makes it clear she hasn’t lost her faith yet and is taking action now before she does. © Robert Baird / Qobuz