Concert Reviews

Her voice still has that instantly recognizable deep-and-low quality you can feel in your chest.

When Mavis Staples walked onto the Chevalier Theatre stage Saturday night, she brought a whole lot of history with her. 

More importantly, she brought a powerful, sensitive voice and a resolute optimism undimmed by the decades since she and her fellow Staples Singers sang at civil rights rallies for Martin Luther King Jr. 

Rather than coast on her formidable legacy, Staples has spent the 21st century collaborating in the studio with younger artists like Jeff Tweedy and Ben Harper, crafting a satisfying blend of her gospel-soul roots and the modern Americana whose practitioners cite her earlier work as a key influence. 

Staples has also been touring hard in recent years, and the show she and her band brought to Medford this weekend was clearly the work of seasoned professionals, though it retained just the right amount of charming roughness. 

At 86, Staples needs to conserve her energy, so she took some short breaks to sit throughout the set and let her two backup singers take the lead on the occasional verse. 

Where it mattered, though, she hasn’t lost a step. Her voice still has that instantly recognizable deep-and-low quality you can feel in your chest, and she knew exactly when a song needed a gritty soul shout to take it to the next level. 

Early in the evening, Staples told us exactly what she intended to do: bring joy, inspiration, and positive vibrations, and ensure everyone left the theater feeling better than they did coming in.

The 12-song, 65-minute performance certainly didn’t lack for uplifting moments, with the three-piece band (led by Mavis’ longtime guitarist Rick Holmstrom) buoying vintage Staples Singers cuts like “City in the Sky” and “Handwriting on the Wall” with their steady-rolling rhythms. 

Between songs, Staples showed how she got the nickname Bubbles, chuckling at her own jokes and teasing Holmstrom with familiar affection. 

Still, in keeping with her protest-singer background, Staples made sure to balance the festivities with a few pointed reminders of current events. 

“Beautiful Strangers,” a gently tender ballad which just won a Best American Roots Performance Grammy a few weeks ago, was originally released by indie singer-songwriter Kevin Morby in 2016.

For Staples to sing the line “Oh I’m sorry, Freddie Gray” live in 2026 transforms the song from a gut reaction to a tragic news story into a poignant vow to continue remembering the Black lives stolen by this country even when their names have faded from the headlines. 

The crowd cheered for that line, but they cheered a little louder for “can’t stand the coppers,” and “the whole world is wondering/what’s wrong with the United States,” from “Freedom Highway,” got a pretty big reaction, too. 

Staples saved her fieriest comments for the bridge to “No Time for Crying,” calling out ICE and politicians “telling women what to do with their bodies,” declaring “no kings, no dictators,” and exhorting us to follow the advice civil rights leader John Lewis gave her and make some “good trouble.” 

After a simmering take on the Staples Singers classic “Respect Yourself,” Mavis brought things down for “Human Mind,” a highlight from last year’s “Sad and Beautiful World” album written by Hozier and Allison Russell. 

As Staples moved from verses wracked with grief for a war-torn world and the passing of loved ones to a chorus insisting that God and humanity are still good in spite of it all, the depth of her connection to the song and its sentiment came through in every note of her quietly intense delivery. 

She sustained the elegiac mood with “Friendship,” which her beloved father Pops Staples sang on his final album. This gorgeously hushed rendition, complete with what might have been the quietest guitar solo I’ve ever heard, had the warmth and affection of a hug in musical form. 

Having taken the audience on a full emotional journey, it was time for Staples to finish her mission and send the people home with joy in their hearts. Fortunately, there’s a Staples Singers song perfect for that task: the positively giddy “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom).” 

The cheer was contagious, with Staples playfully strumming Holmstrom’s guitar during his solo and letting loose with a truly impressive scream on the outro. 

The night ended with “Everybody Needs Love,” a sentiment that looks trite on paper but, when sung by someone who’s lived and loved as long and hard as Mavis Staples, just sounds like the truth. 

Northampton native Kimaya Diggs opened with a set of smooth R&B tunes whose live-band grooves and earnestly introspective lyrics skewed retro enough to win over Mavis Staples’ more old-school fans while still feeling distinctly contemporary. 

Setlist for Mavis Staples at Chevalier Theatre, Medford, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026

• City in the Sky (The Staples Singers song)
• I’m Just Another Soldier (The Staples Singers song)
• Handwriting on the Wall (The Staples Singers song)
• Chicago (Tom Waits cover)
• Beautiful Strangers (Kevin Morby cover)
• Freedom Highway (The Staples Singers song)
• No Time for Crying 
• Respect Yourself (The Staples Singers song)
• Human Mind 
• Friendship (J. Blackfoot cover)
• Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom) (The Staples Singers song)
• Everybody Needs Love (Eddie Hinton cover)

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