Mavis Staples: If All I Was Was Black
The title track from Mavis Staples’ forthcoming album (out 17 November), “If All I Was Was Black” confronts not only racism the singer faced in her eight decades of performing, but also the violence she witnesses today in racial conflict. Written in collaboration with longtime friend and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, the track (and the album’s other songs) aims to “bring us all together as a people. That’s what I hope to do. You can’t stop me. You can’t break me. I’m too loving. These songs are going to change the world,” Staples explains to NPR.
