At 86, Mavis Staples is still proving that the power of song can change the world. The soul, gospel and civil rights icon will release her new album Sad And Beautiful World on 7 November 2025, an extraordinary project that spans seven decades of the American songbook while showcasing her timeless voice and message of unity.
Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff), Sad And Beautiful World is both a reflection and a revival. It features new originals, powerful reinventions of classic songs, and an all-star list of collaborators including Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Derek Trucks, Justin Vernon, Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee) and MJ Lenderman.
Cook’s approach was simple but profound: build every track around Mavis’ voice. “We started with just her vocal, a drum and piano,” he says, “and built everything around that.” The result is an album that feels intimate and eternal – a conversation between generations, grounded by one of the most enduring voices in music.
The title track, written by the late Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse), captures that essence perfectly – a song about loss, hope and the beauty that can exist between them. Staples’ delivery turns its quiet grief into something luminous, a whispered sermon from a woman who’s lived every word she sings.
The record opens with Chicago, a love letter to the city that shaped her and the birthplace of gospel soul. Elsewhere, she revisits Curtis Mayfield’s We Got To Have Peace, Porter Wagoner’s Satisfied Mind, and Jackie DeShannon’s Put A Little Love In Your Heart – songs that feel newly relevant in a fractured world. “Love is a choice and a force,” Staples says. “I just want to share the compassion I feel through the songs.”
The album’s full tracklist is as follows:
Chicago
Beautiful Strangers
Sad And Beautiful World
Human Mind
Hard Times
Godspeed
We Got To Have Peace
Anthem
Satisfied Mind
Everybody Needs Love
Sad And Beautiful World continues a remarkable late-career renaissance for Staples. Her partnership with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produced a trilogy of acclaimed albums – You Are Not Alone (2010), One True Vine (2013), and If All I Was Was Black (2017) – before working with Ben Harper on 2019’s We Get By. Each album has seen Mavis balancing gospel conviction with contemporary soul and rock production, finding new audiences without losing her roots.
Her journey began in the 1940s with her father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and siblings Cleotha, Yvonne and Pervis as The Staple Singers. The family group became one of the defining voices of the Civil Rights Movement, turning gospel harmonies into anthems for justice with Respect Yourself, I’ll Take You There and Let’s Do It Again. Pops’ friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led to the group performing at marches and rallies, their music echoing the hopes of a changing America.
As a solo artist, Mavis has built on that legacy across decades, working with Prince, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson and Hozier, among countless others. She’s been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and the Gospel Hall of Fame, and received both GRAMMY and Kennedy Center honours.
In her mid-80s, she remains unstoppable. Her concerts, often alongside Brandi Carlile, Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt, are joyful, defiant celebrations of endurance. There’s laughter, truth, and always that unmistakable voice: aged like oak, still shaking souls.
Where most legends of her generation are content to rest, Mavis Staples keeps singing forward, a living, breathing bridge between gospel’s past and music’s future.
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