The Ultimate Mavis Staples Fan Gift Guide
The holiday season has finally arrived, which means that you’ll need to find the perfect gifts for those special sound nerds in your life. Over the next several weeks, we’re sharing carefully curated gift guides for the ultimate music fans of Kris Kristofferson, Kenny Rogers, Mavis Staples and more.
Mavis Staples is one of the most celebrated singers in the history of soul and R&B. Her stage presence is undeniable, her voice has grit and fire, and her tunes are filled with heart. Back in 2014, a truckload of Mavis’s famous friends got together to honor her legacy, live at the Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. The result is a two-hour concert film and associated audio recording that features huge stars like Gregg Allman, Eric Church, Emmylou Harris, Arcade Fire, Jeff Tweedy, and so many others.
We carry the joy of Mavis Staples with us all year long, but we wanted to put together the perfect gift guide for the ultimate Mavis fan in your life. Scroll down to check it out!
The memories of your favorite concert might only last a few decades, but vinyl lasts a lifetime. Take home the two-LP version of Mavis Staples’s I’ll Take You There: An All-Star Concert Celebration. The vinyl set features several once-in-a-lifetime performances like Michael McDonald’s rendition of “Freedom Highway,” Taj Mahal’s raucous “Wade In The Water,” and the Mavis/Jeff Tweedy joint, “You Are Not Alone.” Each track was recorded live at the Blackbird Presents concert event back in 2014.
You might know Mavis Staples from her solo career, but the soulful chanteuse has been in the music business since she was a kid. The Staple Singers, formed by her father Roebuck “Pops” Staples, was an R&B, soul, and gospel tour de force back in the ’60s and ’70s. The group, which included Mavis’s sisters Cleotha and Yvonne, and brother Pervis, went on to be an influential group throughout the Civil Rights Movement — a legacy that Mavis carries to this day. This handsome Helvetica type shirt comes straight from the singer’s store, and I need it now.
Mavis Staples’ I’ll Take You There concert event is memorialized in this rad black v-neck from Blackbird Presents, featuring a screen printed pink rose with words “I’ll Take You There” on the front and a printed back listing all the artists who performed at the show.
Acclaimed Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot cuts to the heart of Mavis Staples’s music, revealing the intimate stories of her 60-year career in I’ll Take You There. From her love affair with Bob Dylan (yes, you read that correctly), to her creative collaborations with Prince, to her revival alongside Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, this definitive account shows Mavis as you’ve never seen her before.
Even if you weren’t at I’ll Take You There: An All-Star Concert Celebration, you can feel like you were just five rows back with the fabulous three-disc CD/DVD. The two-and-a-half-hour concert film and available audio recordings feature over 20 once-in-a-lifetime performances from this momentous event by Gregg Allman, Ryan Bingham, Win Butler & Régine Chassagne, Eric Church, Patty Griffin, Glen Hansard, Emmylou Harris, and so many others. Captured and presented in stunning HD quality with true Dolby 5.1 surround stereo, the full-length concert film and available audio records include some of Mavis’ classics, like “I’ll Take You There,” “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” and “People Get Ready.”
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL MAVIS STAPLES PRODUCTS FROM BLACKBIRD PRESENTS