Genuine soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples meets the blues in the form of Alligator's 'genuine house rockin music'. This album really does have it all: excellent songs with meaningful and passionate lyrics, outstanding musicianship and superb production. The result is truly stunning.
Particular credit should go to Jim Tulio's contribution to both the song writing and production that has rightly seen this album being widely acclaimed. Among several exceptional tracks are "Pop's Recipe", which is a tribute to Mavis's late father, Roebuck 'Pops' Staples, and the values he taught her and her sisters & brothers; and "There's A Devil On The Loose" which goes a long way to summing up our troubled times - and it's too close to call between them as to which is the highlight of the album.
The high standard continues unabated with the gospel influenced songs "Step Into the Light" and "Have A Little Faith", as well as with the uplifting and soulful "At The End Of The Day". And her rendition of the traditional "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" that closes out the album is even better than Johnny Cash's version - do I really need to say any more than that?
We certainly regard this as Alligator's best album of the new Millennium to date, and a much welcome, and phenomenal, return to recording by Mavis.