New Single: Mavis Staples - Sad and Beautiful World

Artiest/Band: Mavis Staples New Single: Sad and Beautiful World Album: Sad and Beautiful World Release: 7th November 2025 Label: Chicago Recording Company Format: CD/LP/DL/Digital Genre: R&B/Soul/Chicago More than seventy years after a high-school a cappella teacher tried and failed to change her singing style, Mavis Staples has one of the most recognizable voices in the world. Her new album ‘Sad And Beautiful World’, out November 7........►►►

More than seventy years after a high-school a cappella teacher tried and failed to change her singing style, Mavis Staples has one of the most recognizable voices in the world. Her new album ‘Sad And Beautiful World’, out November 7, is the latest solo album from a national treasure and multigenerational talent with vocals so warm and textured they feel like a physical presence. A collection of hopeful songs for tough times, the title track was written by Mark Linkous a.k.a. Sparklehorse. With its funeral-march rhythm and spare lyrics, “Sad And Beautiful World” finds beauty even amid the grief over everything that’s been lost.

‘Sad and Beautiful World’ was produced by Brad Cook, known for his work with Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, and Nathaniel Rateliff, among others. The record spans seven decades of the American songbook — a range nearly as vast as Mavis’ career — and includes reinventions of timeless songs as well as original music. Cook tells stories about growing up listening to the Staple Singers. About seeing Mavis perform live, he said, “I remember being utterly floored by the conviction and power she had in her voice.”

To capture Mavis’ resonant phrasing and textured vocals, Cook tried to build every song around that voice. He began with spare skeleton recordings, just drum and piano, and focused on recording her vocals. Then he expanded the song from there, trying never to overshadow or undermine the framework she’d established. He imagined a record in the tradition of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’, a group of artists coming together to celebrate community—in this case, one centered on Mavis.

‘Sad And Beautiful World’ includes cameos by artists who have become part of Mavis’ world, many of whom are legends in their own right: Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, Derek Trucks, Katie Crutchfield, MJ Lenderman, Justin Vernon, and others shine a light on her, while Mavis does what only she can do. Embracing vulnerability, she sings close and deep here, drawing the listener into a circle filled with her unforgettable presence.

• Website: https://mavisstaples.com/

• Iets meer dan een maand geleden bracht Staples met Beautiful Strangers ▼ook al zo’n mooie single uit

If you ever hear that thunder

Put your eye to the sky, boy, and wonder
Maybe there's a kingdom above the weather
Oh, and whether you're gonna get our name is up to him

If you ever hear that crying
In the distance like some siren
Maybe there's a singer
With no ring around their little finger
No love
And If I lose my voice
If I have no choice but to go quiet
Won't you sing for me a melody into the night there
Well, if I die too young, if the wolf he comes
Fee-fi-fo-fum
If I die too young, oh, if the locust come
Well then, run, run, run
Free

If you ever hear that gunshot
You may think 'bout what you do but you don't got
Say a prayer, think of mother, I am a rock

If you ever hear that sound now
If the door gets kicked in here, they come now
Think of others, be their cover
I am what they're not

Pray for Paris
They can not scare us
Or stop the music
Your sweet voice, child
Why don't you use it?

If I die too young, or the gunmen come, I'm full of love
So release me, every piece of me, up above
(Up above, ooh ooh ooh)

Love my mama and my papa
Love my sister, can't stand the coppers up in their choppers
Oh, flying overhead, forty-nine dead

Singing, oh, my Lord, come carry me home
Oh, my Lord, come carry me home
I'm singing oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my Lord

And if I die too young for something I ain't done
Carry my name every day
Oh, I'm sorry
Oh, I'm sorry
Freddie Gray
But sleep easy like baby Jesus in a manger
Oh, sleep easy like little Jesus, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger

If I die too young, let all that I've done be remembered
And I'll sleep easy like baby Jesus in his manger
And I'll sleep easy like little Jesus, safe from danger
Carry onward, like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Carry onward, like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger

credits

from Sad And Beautiful World, track released August 26, 2025
Written by Kevin Morby

Lead Vocals - Mavis Staples
Background Vocals - Nathaniel Rateliff
Harmony Vocals - Tré Burt
Acoustic Guitar - Nathan Stocker
Electric Guitar - MJ Lenderman, Rick Holmstrom
OP-1 Bass - Matt McCaughan
Drums - Matt McCaughan
Piano - Phil Cook
Vibraphone - Brad Cook

Saxophone - Matt Douglas.