We'll Never Turn Back is the eleventh studio album by American gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples, released April 24, 2007 on ANTI- Records. Recorded in 2007 and produced by roots rock and blues musician Ry Cooder, it is a concept album with lyrical themes relating to the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
From the moment that Roebuck “Pops” Staples befriended Martin Luther King in the early ‘60s, the Staple Singers’ brand of gospel developed an explicitly political edge. They recorded church music spiked with righteous anger (like the funk standard “Why Am I Treated So Bad”); or redemption songs that were as political as they were spiritual, like their 1972 US chart-topper “I’ll Take You There” (complete with sly anti-Nixon digs like “Ain’t no smiling faces/Lying to the races”). (UNCUT)
Down In Mississippi (JB Lenoir)
Now, seven years after Pops’ death, his daughter Mavis continues that tradition with “We’ll Never Turn Back”, an album of ‘60s civil rights anthems. It’s produced and musically directed by Ry Cooder, and like Cooder’s recent album “My Name Is Buddy”, it investigates the flipside of the American dream – the America of radical protest and collective action. (UNCUT)
Original versions of these songs can be found on various Smithsonian Folkways compilations: Staples says the aim was “to upgrade them”. Not all of it works – here “We Shall Not Be Moved” is reduced to a dreary pub blues workout (UNCUT)
We Shall Not Be Moved (Trad)
But elsewhere it succeeds brilliantly.
“Eyes On The Prize” and the title track become thrilling slices of
southern-fried funk which recall Dr John’s “Walk On Gilded Splinters”. (UNCUT)
In the Mississippi River (M Jones)
JB Lenoir’s “Down In Mississippi” is given a haunting, Afrocentric edge by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while Ry Cooder’s wobbly, steel-bodied guitar is the perfect counterpoint to “Jesus Is On The Main Line”. (UNCUT)
If Mavis’s voice has become rather ragged in the higher register, her clarity and phrasing are still perfect. “In The Mississippi River”, a shocking, “Strange Fruit”-type dirge about lynch mob victims being dredged from the water, sees Staples growling the story, while ‘60s veterans The Freedom Singers provide luscious harmonies. (UNCUT)
99 & 1/2 (Ry Cooder.Mavis Staples.Trad.)
All round, it’s a successful fusion of tradition and modernism. As Rutha Harris’s high-pitched howl takes on the disembodied quality of a rave sample, it’s hard not to be won over by the project’s eerie majesty. (UNCUT)
My Own Eyes (D.Bartlett.Mavis Staples.Ry Cooder)
UNCUT: How has your voice changed over the years?
MAVIS STAPLES: Obviously, I can’t sing some of the high notes – a lot of
songs I’ve had to sing in a lower key. Pops always said “make it plain”
and I’ve always tried to do that, You have to pronounce the words
clearly to tell the story.(UNCUT)
Turn Me Around (Trad.)
“We Shall Overcome” is notable by its absence…
Yes. I think the Civil Rights struggle moved on. After years of Dr
King’s leadership, we were no longer at the bottom. “We’ll Never Turn
Back” had a much stronger resonance for African Americans.
(UNCUT)
We,ll Never Turn Back (Bertha Gober)
How does Ry Cooder compare with Prince as a producer?
They’re different types of genius! When Prince produced two albums of mine in the 1980s he was rarely with me in the studio. But Ry does things like we did back in Muscle Shoals, with all the singers and musicians playing together. Sometimes, with Ry, I could hear touches of Pops. It’d hear some stray guitar lick and it’d send a shiver up my spine. (UNCUT)
I,ll Be Rested (Ry Cooder..Joachim Cooder.Mavis Staples)
The Washington Post's Bill Friskics-Warren shared a similar sentiment in his review, writing "Staples reinvests… with the moral authority to speak to social and economic injustices that persist today" and "rarely have 'remakes' sounded so tonic or inspired". The album received an A rating from the Boston Herald, which wrote "In the course of celebrating a landmark, Staples and Cooder make one of their own". We'll Never Turn Back also received perfect ratings from The Independent and NOW magazine.[6][16] LA Weekly's Ernest Hardy gave it a rave review and lauded the album's sound, writing "Powerfully raw, suggestive blues is the foundation of the CD, but that root allows the collaborators to sprawl through other genres, reminding you of the connections between them all — blues and gospel, spirituals and jazz"
Jesus On The Mainline (Mavis Staples.Trad.)
Ry Cooder - guitar, mandolin, arranger, producer,Joachim Cooder - percussion, arranger, producer,
Mike Elizondo - bass, piano.Betty Fikes - background vocals,Rutha Harris -background vocals,
Jim Keltner - drums,Ladysmith Black Mambozo - background vocals,Charles Neblett - background vocals,
The Freedom Singers
The Washington Post's
Bill Friskics-Warren shared a similar sentiment in his review, writing
"Staples reinvests… with the moral authority to speak to social and
economic injustices that persist today" and "rarely have 'remakes'
sounded so tonic or inspired". The album received an A rating from the Boston Herald, which wrote "In the course of celebrating a landmark, Staples and Cooder make one of their own". We'll Never Turn Back also received perfect ratings from The Independent and NOW magazine.[6][16] LA Weekly's
Ernest Hardy gave it a rave review and lauded the album's sound,
writing "Powerfully raw, suggestive blues is the foundation of the CD,
but that root allows the collaborators to sprawl through other genres,
reminding you of the connections between them all — blues and gospel,
spirituals and jazz".
We'll Never Turn Back was named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications, including PopMatters (number 11) and The Austin Chronicle (number five). The album was ranked number 48 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. Los Angeles Times columnist Todd Martens named We'll Never Turn Back the second best album of the year,[and Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune ranked it number one on his list of the best albums of 2007.
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