Mavis in Charge

There's always been something otherworldly about Mavis Staples. As the most recognizable member of her family's gospel group, the Staple Singers, Mavis' growling, sensuous alto sounded like a kind of cosmic invocation-especially after the group crossed over to pop music in the 1970s with hits like "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again." Her voice breaking into an ecstatic shout, Mavis urged us to a place where sex and the divine were not just peaceable acquaintances but parts of the same experience.

With her talent and looks, Mavis was a natural for solo stardom, but her albums recorded apart from the group were often disappointing. She seemed to need the security of her family to let inspiration soar. Now, with her father (group founder "Pops" Staples) deceased and sister Cleotha suffering from Alzheimer's, Mavis has been forced to do it on her own, and to say she's met the challenge would be an understatement. Her recent album, Have a Little Faith (Alligator) is arguably the finest work of her career, an intensely personal statement that flows with creativity and life.

At 65, Staples has to push her voice a bit more these days, and that rough upper edge is grittier than ever. But her willingness to lay herself on the line, vocally and emotionally, makes up for any shortcomings. Bending and "worrying" lines in the manner of her idol, the late Mahalia Jackson, Staples works up the kind of storefront passion that has largely disappeared from modern music. "Hold on, hold on," she sings on the joyous title track, "help is on the way?there's a better tomorrow, I can feel it today," and for that moment we believe it, swept by the power of her conviction. With much of today's "Christian rock" being used to sow intolerance, Staples gives us a stirring reminder that at its core, gospel is about uplift and transformation-moral values of the non-judgmental kind.

Musically, Staples and coproducer Jim Tullio have inserted all sorts of unexpected elements, from an exhilarating, Caribbean-inspired vocal chorus during the bridge of "Have a Little Faith" to dueling male and female choirs on "In Times Like These" (composed by Tullio in honor of two friends who died in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks). Most striking of all is "God Is Not Sleeping": With its rustling, bucolic sound effects, it wouldn't sound out of place on a Cassandra Wilson album, although Wilson has never come close to Staples' mystical transcendence. Her sepulchral whisper at the song's end-"While we are sleeping, he is still working"-is a quietly luminous statement of faith. If Mavis has rarely sounded this committed, it's because this time she's finally in charge.