Mavis Staples, 86, showed St. Paul why she’s the American music icon we need most in 2026
All the key elements of the Chicago legend’s storied career were on display as she kicked off a two-night stand at Ordway Concert Hall.
By Chris Riemenschneider
The Minnesota Star Tribune
Halfway through a St. Paul concert that matched her own stature — short but powerful — Mavis Staples hammered away on lines that seemed to explain why she’s still taking us there at age 86.
“I won’t turn around,” she sang. “I’ve come too far.”
Kicking off a two-night stand at Ordway Concert Hall, one of America’s greatest living music icons delivered those words with dramatic emphasis during “Freedom Highway.” It’s an anthem she first sang with her father and siblings in the mid-1960s, when their group, the Staple Singers, could not legally eat or sleep in many of the same establishments with Bob Dylan and the other white musicians she befriended and deeply influenced.
Flash forward 60 years, Staples is continues to find great meaning and purpose in her performances. Tuesday’s hourlong set for about 1,000 adoring fans didn’t feel so much like a stroll down memory lane as it did another march down the Freedom Highway.
Here’s a rundown of what still makes her a legend.
Her voice. There was always a certain amount of ruggedness in Staples’ voice, as if she grew up breathing the dust in the Mississippi cotton fields her parents worked as kids. So it was hardly a detriment that she sounded a little more ragged in her mid-80s. She sometimes had to sit to catch her breath or let band members take lead vocals. Just when you started to miss her, though, Staples would pipe in with a lion-like “owww” or “yeaaah,” and it was off to the races again.
She sang several new songs, too, leaning into the soothing lower end of her vocals with warm results in both “Human Mind” and “Beautiful Stranger,” the latter the title track of her new album.
Her messages. Staples’ dad, Pops Staples, famously told his kids to try to sing what their frequent stage-sharer Martin Luther King Jr. was preaching. She’s still following Pops’ lead.
“There’s too many people telling too many lies” were the first words out of Staples’ mouth, as she kicked off the show with the Staple Singers classic “City in the Sky.” Next came “I’m Just Another Soldier,” whose lyrics about love being a weapon and hate being the enemy earned bursts of applause from Operation Metro Surge-hardened Twin Cities fans. Oldies like those and “Freedom Highway” were not the only songs praying for peace, love and understanding. “Beautiful Strangers” spoke poignantly to America’s plague of gun violence. Another recent gem, “You’re Not Alone,” outright demanded hope.
Her song choices. Akin to the Staple Singers’ revered take on the Band’s “The Weight” and her beloved 2013 version of Funkadelic’s “Can You Get to That,” Staples reminded us how well she makes other people’s songs her own. “Beautiful Strangers” originated with Kansas’ cosmic twanger Kevin Morby. “Human Mind” was co-authored by Hozier and Allison Russell. “You’re Not Alone” came from her frequent producer and Chicago homie Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame. By the way, she didn’t even get around to delivering the Staple Singers’ best-known hit, 1972’s “I’ll Take You There.”
Her mighty band. Much like the Staple Singers’ reliance on the Muscle Shoals studio band the Swampers, Mavis has used the same core backing band for going on 20 years and really rides its greased wheels. “Handwriting on the Wall,” in particular, showed how well guitarist and bandleader Rick Holmstrom channels Pops Staples’ tight bluesy groove while playing to Mavis’ looser spirit.
It would’ve been nice for them to incorporate ace vocal harmonizers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig from the opening act Lucius, whose own stripped-down, eight-song acoustic set positively glowed in the acoustically pristine concert hall. However, Staples had her own sturdy vocal support in band members Saundra Williams and Kelly Hogan, the latter also Neko Case’s longtime microphone mate.
Her story and persona. Having Staples still going strong at 86 after such a truly storied career just seems like another perfect twist in her story. Like her fellow Americana music heroes born before the baby boom who are on the road again, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson — both coming to town later this summer — she didn’t so much hide her age in St. Paul as she used it for inspiration and character.
More so than Nelson and even her one-time would-be beau Dylan, though, Staples came to town armed with songs that speak to the here-and-now, especially here and now. Which was so Mavis.