Mavis Staples is known as many things: soul hitmaker, civil rights trailblazer, 21st-century torchbearer of American gospel music, roots music luminary, world-class entertainer, and singular lead singer of her family band, the Staple Singers. But throughout her career, Staples has also proven to be a superb interpreter of song. From her teenaged take on standards like “Uncloudy Day” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” her Seventies showstopping rendition of “The Weight,” or her 1984 cover of the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People,” Mavis has always had a knack for taking songs the public knows and making them utterly her own.

Such is the premise for Staples’ stunning new album, Sad and Beautiful World . Staples transforms disparate material across genres and decades — some well known stan

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