What happened to music that meant something?

The Who at the Kingdom or a kiss at the Coliseum?

Where is the Misty Mountain Hop? Where is the smoke on the water?

Where is the Iron man of today. Hey, this is not a test. This is rock and roll.

Together with their family, Mavis Staples used that huge voice to power the legendary gospel group,

the staple singers, hitting the top of the charts and inspiring the civil rights movement decades into a solo career she's

still proving she's a national treasure. I'm Jim De Regattis and I'm Greg Kott.

We sit down with Mavis Staples to talk about her life and her historic career.

That's all coming up on Sound Opinions.

This is Sound Opinions and this week Greg we are both beyond thrilled to have a musical

legend in the studio with us the great mavis staples. You wrote the definitive biography of Mavis Staples. I'll take you there.

Mavis Staples, the Staples Singers, and the music that shaped the civil rights movement.

A fantastic Reed came out in 2014. Who is Mavis Staples?

Well, it's a grand story, Jim. It's spans 20th century music and on into the 21st century.

It starts with her father, father pop staples who grew up on

Dockery Farm in Mississippi and learned the blues guitar at the feet of the

founder of the blues of the modern blues anyway Charlie Patton

combined it with four-part gospel harmonies, moved to Chicago, taught it to

his children, including Mavis and her brother and sisters, Purvis Cleotha and Yvonne, they became a family band known as the Staple Singers, performing

in churches in Chicago beginning in the late 40s, became a national act in 1956 with Uncloudy Day.

Mavis went on from there and her family to greatly influence and provide a soundtrack

for the civil rights movement in the 60s.

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