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Mavis Staples

Mon., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $24-$50.50, with Jolie Holland, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.

by K. Ross Hoffman

Published: September 28, 2010

[ soul/gospel ]

At 71, with a storied musical career stretching back some 60 years — including decades of hit-making with the Staple Singers — Mavis Staples is undeniably a national treasure, but she's showing no sign of slowing down or resting on her laurels. In fact, she's been remarkably active in the past several years, performing, collaborating and cutting a handful of top-notch albums, most recently the Jeff Tweedy-produced You Are Not Alone (Anti-), which, in flitting from gritty gospel-funk to bluesy folk-rock to doo-woppish street-corner testifyin', is at once a stylistic career survey and a testament to the present and living power of her voice: fiery, flowing, fervent and oozing feeling from every crag.

Mon., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $24-$50.50, with Jolie Holland, World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com.


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