If ever there was an artist that could rest on her laurels it’s Mavis Staples. Honestly, reading Mavis’ bio is effectively an American history lesson; Mavis marched with Martin Luther King, Jr, performed for JFK at his inauguration and more recently for Barack Obama at the White House. Her solo career has included releases on Stax, Curtis Mayfield’s Custom label and two albums on Paisley Park in collaboration with Prince. She sang on The Last Waltz with The Band and nearly married Bob Dylan, while recordings with Arcade Fire and Gorillaz highlight her relevance to younger audiences.  In fact, it’s her more recent work on a trio of albums with producer Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) via the Anti- label in the last decade that has bought Staples back into the spotlight. The nearest comparison I can make of an artist releasing such a run of impressive records at this late stage of their career - albums completely sympathetic to their legacy and character - would be Rick Rubin’s American recordings with Johnny Cash.