When Mavis Staples took the ShoalsFest stage, she brought greetings from the Windy City, “home of the down home blues—Muddy Waters, Coco Taylor, Buddy Guy, the Howling Wolf.” Then she made it clear that on her first return after her years recording in Muscle Shoals (pointing in the direction of the recording studio across the Tennessee River) that she considered the area her second home.
She reached back into her recording history from the days with the Staples Singers as well as the title song from her latest CD We’ll Get By and the crowd was with her all the way. Each time a fan called out, “We love you, Mavis!” she responded, “I love you more.” And everyone believed it.
Responding to those who say, “Hold back, Mama. We don’t want to rock the boat,” she asked, “Who told you that?” and launched into the old Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth.”
While the heat had her sitting down from time to time throughout the set, Mavis Staples brought plenty of energy to her performance. She delivered a soulful rendition of “I’ll Be There for You,” before she was joined by Muscle Shoals Icon “Little David” Hood on guitar for “Respect Yourself,” calling him her little brother.
When she sang the lines “Nothing in the world is stronger than my love for you,” from “Stronger,” no one in the audience doubted she meant it. Throughout the set, she kept checking in with her fans–“You feel all right? How’re you feeling?”—prompting her to launch into a feel lines of “I Feel Good.”
“That’s the first time for that,” she told the audience. “See what you made me do?” Then she called out Jason Isbell, whom she called her “big brother,” who joined her on “Things Gotta Change Around Here.”
“That dude can pick the guitar,” she said. “I believe I’m gonna take him with me.”
The upbeat nature of her set, including her performance of “Make a Friend if You Can,” had the audience right with her when she announced, “We’ve got work to do. I think I’m gonna run for president.”
If the crowd could have voted right then, she would have stood a good chance of being elected. She promised the crowd she was going to come back every year to bring joy, happiness, inspiration, and good vibrations.