Senate Concurrent Resolution 609

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING AND SALUTING MAVIS STAPLES UPON HER RECEIPT OF THE 18TH ANNUAL "LIVING BLUES MAGAZINE" AWARD FOR BLUES ARTIST OF THE YEAR AND MOST OUTSTANDING BLUES SINGER.

WHEREAS, on August 17, 2011, it was announced that the recipient of the 18th Annual "Living Blues Magazine" Award for 2011 Blues Artist of the Year (Female) and Most Outstanding Blues Singer of the Year was Mavis Staples; and

WHEREAS, Mavis Staples was an Inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Staple Singers in 1999 and was named as one of the "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll"; and

WHEREAS, on August 3, 2011, 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting released "Raise Your Voice," a 16-track compilation of music for advocates for public broadcasting, featuring a major selection by Mavis Staples; and

WHEREAS, best known as the Lead Vocalist of the Staple Singers, a family soul-gospel ensemble that flourished from the 1950s through the 1970s and beyond, Mavis Staples has also released a series of albums as a solo artist. Her voice was instantly compelling with its deep-like-a-river quality of moral conviction. Over her long career, Staples won other musicians, including Bob Dylan and Prince, as admirers, and her solo work won new recognition with the release of her 2004 album, "Have a Little Faith." In 2005, Staples accepted a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement on behalf of the Staple Singers, of whom she was the last surviving original member; and

WHEREAS, Mavis Staples was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 10, 1939. Her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, had grown up on Mississippi's Dockery Plantation, a key site in the development of the blues, and had learned to play the guitar from the great early Bluesman Charley Patton. After he moved north to Chicago in 1936, he began to organize gospel quartets after finishing work at a meatpacking plant, and it was gospel that Mavis Staples heard at home. "He used to play records by the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Soul Sisters, the Blind Boys of Mississippi, as well as the Blind Boys of Alabama, but after I heard [gospel great] Mahalia [Jackson] sing 'Move On Up a Little Higher,' I had to play her music every day"; and

WHEREAS, Mavis Staples made her solo recording debut in 1969 on the Volt imprint of Memphis's Stax label, with the secular Mavis Staples album "Only for the Lonely." The Staple Singers, also recording for Stax by that time, reached the peak of their commercial success in the early 1970s. Staples had a hand in composing several of the group's top hits, including the chart-topping and widely familiar "I'll Take You There" (1972)--a song that seemed to distill into funky gospel cadences the hopeful atmosphere of the civil rights era. In 1974, the group moved to the Chicago-based Curtom label, headed by soul singer Curtis Mayfield, and the following year they scored another number one hit with "Let's Do It Again"; and

WHEREAS, after recording a soundtrack album, "A Piece of the Action," for Curtom in 1977, Staples made another try at a solo career with the album Mavis Staples. Produced by former Motown songwriters Eddie and Brian Holland, along with Stax veteran Steve Cropper, it featured songwriting contributions from Aretha Franklin's younger sister Carolyn. In 1996, Staples recorded Spirituals & Gospel, a tribute to her idol Mahalia Jackson. She entered the studio in Memphis as producer in 1997, to record a final Pops Staples album; and "These were old songs he sang as a boy, and I asked him to record them as simply as possible, just his voice and guitar"; and

WHEREAS, "Have a Little Faith" appeared in 2004; one of its selections, "I Still Believe in You," became the theme song for the successful World Series drive of baseball's Boston Red Sox that year, and Staples was picked to sing "America the Beautiful" at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The album also included "Pops Recipe," a tribute to Pops Staples, and a new version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." Staples earned a Grammy nomination in 2003 for her duet with Bob Dylan on "Gotta Change My Way of Thinking," and she added three more in 2004 for her contributions to Dr. John's "N'awlinz": "Dis Dat or D'udda" and to "Beautiful Dreamer": The Songs of Stephen Foster. Perhaps more popular than she had ever been, Staples told Jet Magazine, "My voice is my gift from God, and I'm going to use it"; and

WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we honor the contributions of this influential blues singer with deep Mississippi roots, who has become an unofficial Ambassador for the State of Mississippi in memory of her father Pops Staples:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby recognize and salute one of the "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll" Mavis Staples upon her receipt of the 18th Annual "Living Blues Magazine" Award for Blues Artist of the Year and Most Outstanding Blues Singer for 2011, and extend our best wishes to Mavis and her family for future success.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Mavis Staples, forwarded to the Mississippi Arts Commission and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.