Mavis Staples

'If All I Was Was Black' (album stream)

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Nov 17, 2017

After releasing Livin' on a High Note last year, Mavis Staples is wasting no time in delivering follow-up If All I Was Was Black, which you can hear in its entirety right now.

Arriving today through Anti-If All I Was Was Black runs 10 tracks in length and finds Staples working with a sole collaborator in Jeff Tweedy. The Wilco frontman penned the songs with Staples' voice in mind, painting a picture of "contemporary America today, a present day filled with ghosts of the past."
 
"We're not loving one another the way we should," Staples previously said in a statement. "Some people are saying they want to make the world great again, but we never lost our greatness. We just strayed into division."

Tweedy also performs on album cut "Ain't No Doubt About It," following the pair's previous collaborations on 2010's You Are Not Alone and 2013's One True Vine.

Take in all of If All I Was Was Black in the player below.



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