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PORTSMOUTH, N.H. \u2014 One day after releasing her latest album, the luminous gospel-soul singer Mavis Staples<\/a> came to Portsmouth to kick off a dozen or so tour dates. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe opened this joint,\u201d she noted from the stage \u2014 in the fall of 2021, she was one of the first artists to play Jimmy\u2019s Jazz & Blues Club<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n On Saturday, she and her five-piece band treated the classy joint to a classy 70-minute set of songs by her family band, the Staple Singers, and from her own solo career. At 86, Staples has become a godmother of sorts to younger generations of indie artists. Her new album, \u201cSad And Beautiful World,\u201d includes songs written by Kevin Morby, Gillian Welch, and Frank Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am the last, daddy, last of us,\u201d she sang midway through the set on the somber new song \u201cHuman Mind.\u201d That one was co-written for Staples by Hozier and Allison Russell<\/a>. Roebuck \u201cPops\u201d Staples, her father, led the family band for most of the latter half of the 20th century. He died in 2000, at the age of 85. The last of Mavis\u2019s siblings, brother Pervis, died in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s show featured a stripped-down trio led by guitarist Rick Holmstrom, who has played with Mavis Staples for nearly 20 years. Two women singers rounded out the lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n Wringing maximum effect out of a sparse setup \u2013 a Telecaster and a Vox amp \u2013 Holmstrom has mastered Pops Staples\u2019s distinctively slinky, endlessly rhythmic style of playing. Some of the most impressive moments of the evening came when the band slowed to a crawl and muted themselves while the matriarch testified.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToo many people telling too many lies,\u201d Staples sang to open the show, on the Staple Singers\u2019s 1974 song \u201cCity In The Sky.\u201d Wearing a gauzy knee-length wrap and a pair of sneakers, Staples eased into the performance. <\/span><\/p>\n By the third song, the jump-bluesy Bible thumper \u201cHandwriting on the Wall,\u201d they\u2019d found their footing. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDrop that seatbelt and shake your tailfeather,\u201d Staples said between songs, imploring the audience to get up and dance. <\/span><\/p>\n On a cover of Tom Waits\u2019s \u201cChicago,\u201d Holmstrom dug deep for some real gutbucket blues. In Staples\u2019s hands, that song became a testament to the Great Migration: Pops Staples moved in the 1930s from his native Mississippi to Chicago, where Mavis was born and still lives.<\/span><\/p>\n She introduced \u201cWhy? (Am I Treated So Bad)\u201d as \u201cDr. King\u2019s favorite song.\u201d (During the Civil Rights Movement, the Staple Singers often warmed up crowds at Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s speaking appearances.) That song featured a spoken interlude during which Staples told a story about her grandmother\u2019s constant moaning \u2013 while she was cooking, or quilting, or gardening. <\/span><\/p>\n Finally, she recalled, she got up enough nerve to ask her elder why she was always moaning.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you moan,\u201d her grandmother replied, \u201cthe devil don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n A fist bump with Holmstrom led into the next number, one of the Staples\u2019s great \u201cmessage\u201d songs, \u201cFreedom Highway,\u201d written in 1965: \u201cThe whole world is wondering \/ What\u2019s wrong with the United States?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Staples coaxed every ounce of inspiration out of that song. \u201cI won\u2019t turn around,\u201d she growled, prolonging the finish. \u201cGot too much more work to do. It ain\u2019t over yet. I won\u2019t go back!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That energy launched the show to another level, from the Staples\u2019s biggest pop hit, \u201cRespect Yourself,\u201d to the sing-along \u201cHeavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The band ended on \u201cEverybody Needs Love,\u201d the closing song from the new album. Written by the late Muscle Shoals session guitarist Eddie Hinton, it\u2019s the kind of mid-tempo anthem that sounds instantly familiar the first time you hear it.<\/span><\/p>\n It was the simplest kind of message song.<\/span><\/p>\n MAVIS STAPLES<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n At Jimmy\u2019s Jazz & Blues Club, Portsmouth, N.H., Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n James Sullivan can be reached at <\/i>jamesgsullivan@gmail.com<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n