Description
Don’t Lose This is an album of previously unreleased music by the late American Gospel/R&B singer and songwriter Pops Staples of the Staple Singers fame, posthumously released on Anti- in February 2015. The album features 10 songs, originally recorded and produced by Pops in 1999, but left unfinished at the time of his death in 2000. Here released with new production by his daughter Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame. Patriarch of the renowned Staple Singers, friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. and musical contemporary of Muddy Waters, BB King and Howlin’ Wolf, Pops Staples was an integral force in American music until his passing 15 years ago.
“Don’t lose this, here,” were the simple words Roebuck “Pops” Staples, musician and patriarchal Staples Singers band leader, said to his daughter Mavis, not long before he died in 2000. He was talking about this collection of his final 10 recordings, made in 1998 and kept under wraps by Mavis for more than a decade. Revamped by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy – who produced the album and played bass and guitar on several tracks – Don’t Lose This serves as an elegant and delicately crafted homage to Pops’ legacy in blues. His original vocals were left untouched, and their gravelly familiarity particularly elevates opener «Somebody Was Watching» and the intimate «Nobody’s Fault But Mine». The album is an endearing family affair, featuring Tweedy’s son, Spencer, on drums, and Pops’s daughters – Cleotha, Yvonne and Mavis Staples – on backing vocals. Though their input threatens to overpower his quivering guitar lines and languid vocal melodies, Don’t Lose This leaves an overwhelming celebratory impression. A gorgeously produced and emotive swansong. [Tshepo Mokoena, The Guardian, March 2015]
Roebuck “Pops” Staples was a musical giant. This posthumous set is the result of his daughter Mavis passing on a set of half-finished recordings to Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy to embellish them for release. Tweedy has done this magnificently, playing bass and guitar on several tracks and bringing in his son Spencer to play drums. With Mavis, Cleotha and Yvonne adding bgvs, the result is more like a long lost Staples album than the solo gospel blues projects Pops sometimes recorded. All the lead vocals are delivered in Pops’ unmistakable languidly bluesy tones while his quivering swamp guitar is as evocatively downhome as ever. Possibly the best track is «Better Home», a gospel country hybrid that the Staples first recorded in 1962 for the ‘This Land’ album. Pops and Mavis sing “When I put this old world aside/ Taking Jesus for my guide / I’m gonna keep on ’til I reach/ A perfect day.” Almost as good is the powerful reworking of Blind Willie Johnson‘s «Nobody’s Fault But Mine» while the closer, a brass-driven version of Dylan’s «Gotta Serve Somebody», shows again what a great song it is. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, April 2015]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/dont-lose-this/1485064931)
CD tracklist:
01. Somebody Was Watching – 4:06
02. Sweet Home – 4:14
03. No News Is Good News – 4:36
04. Love On My Side – 4:03
05. Friendship – 4:06
06. Nobody’s Fault But Mine – 3:07
07. The Lady’s Letter – 2:19
08. Better Home – 4:49
09. Will the Circle Be Unbroken – 4:05
10. Gotta Serve Somebody – 3:29
Note: Released on both CD and 12-inch vinyl LP by Anti-.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.