​Mavis Staples Levon Helm (from the album Carry Me Home

​Mavis Staples Levon Helm (from the album Carry Me Home

​Mavis Staples Levon Helm (from the album Carry Me Home available on Anti- Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
The sound is joyous when Carry Me Home opens on do-do-do harmonies and bright blasts from the horn section, The infectious opening shines a spotlight on the words of Mavis Staples as she declares “This is My Country” and laundry lists decades of injustice. Carry Me Home compiles a live recording captured in the summer of 2011 from Mavis Staples and Levon Helm. Vintage Gospel and Soul, Folk and Blues, the soundtrack shifted as Mavis Staples took the microphone in Levon’s studio located in Woodstock, New York. Levon’s Midnight Ramble series provided the backing band with The Ramble Band. Combining years of friendship and lifelong dedication to music, Mavis Staples and Levon Helm sing a righteous joy into the tracks of Carry Me Home. 
 
Inspirational songs crafted as strength in times of political and racial strife mix with covers of familiar tunes in Carry Me Home. A honky tonk bounce is the foundation for the Blues classic “Trouble in Mind”, originally recorded in a vaudeville-Blues styles in 1924, making the setlist alongside “You Got to Move” by Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Contemporary songs of devotion are included when Mavis Staples and Levon Helm reimagine tunes from Buddy and Julie Miler (“Wide River to Cross”) and Bob Dylan (“You Gotta Serve Somebody”). The Staples Singers were ground zero for addressing political and social struggles in their hits from the 1960’s. Carry Me Home offers a track from Pops Staples (“Move Along Train”), joining other motivational messages in “Hand Writing on the Wall”, I Wish I Knew How It Feels to Be Free”, “This May Be the Last Time”, and “Farther Along”. Both The Band and The Staples Singers had hit versions of “The Weight” and Mavis Staples and Levin Helm close out Carry Me Home with their updated duo version. (by Danny McCloskey)
 
Listen and buy the music of Mavis Staples and Levon Helm from AMAZON
 
For more information and purchase options, please visit the Mavis Staples website