Mavis Staples
The genius of gospel music is that its got one foot in the sacred and the other in the secular. This is also the genius of Mavis Staples, who spent decades with one of the hippest Christian groups of all time, The Staple Singers. Recently, Staples enlisted hipster fave Jeff Tweedy of Wilco to produce You Are Not Alone, an album that is surprisingly sturdy and simple, but no less powerful. The 13 tracks prove Tweedy is not there to showboat, but rather to create a sonic environment in which Staples can do what she does bestsing passionately about the road to redemption. Now in her 70s, Id highly suggest catching this concert, part of the ongoing Earshot Jazz Festival. Performers like her are getting fewer and farther between. (Note: performance was rescheduled from Saturday to tonight.) BRIAN J. BARR
Sun., Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m., 2010
