Neko Case and Mavis Staples both have glorious voices that can stop you in your tracks, and when they’ve got you in their grip, they both make sure to impart serious ideas about what it means to be human. Case, whose solo career took off during her early-aughts sojourn in Chicago, and Staples, a Chicago lifer who made her name in family gospel band the Staple Singers, are separated in age by more than three decades—the former turns 43 on Sunday, while the latter is 74—but they’re connected by the passion for social justice that fuels much of their music. Case just happens to traffic largely in the profane, while Staples has opted for the sacred. Another thing they have in common? The good taste to have hired Kelly Hogan as a backup singer. Their conversation for this week’s Artist on Artist is just as heartwarming as you’d expect from two such empathetic and compassionate musicians.
Mavis Staples: I feel great working with my friend Neko, because we are like family. We sing together real good when we’re on shows together—we sing with each other. And we’re both with Anti- Records, and when I joined Anti-, I joined because of Neko. When they told me that Neko was on the label, I said, Well, that’s good enough for me, I’ll go.
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They never tell you what to do. They just trust us. And they treat us really good.
Yeah, me too, wait a minute now!
Aw, thank you! Are you still in physical therapy and stuff? Is it feeling extra mobile, like, does it feel better than before you had the surgery?
Right! And you know, if I look like I’m going to fall, you come and get me. You can say, “Mavis, hold tight, Mavis. You’ll be all right.”
Hideout Block Party & A.V. Fest, Fri 9/6, 4:30 PM (music starts at 5:15), Sat 9/7, 12:30 PM (music starts at 1:30), Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, hideoutchicago.com, fest.avclub.com, $35, $70 two-day pass, all ages.
