ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAMER MAVIS STAPLES AND 7X GRAMMY NOMINATED VOCALIST JOAN OSBORNE TEAM UP FOR “SOLID SOUL” FALL TOUR
FIRST EVER CO-BILL OF TWO RENOWNED FEMALE SINGERS PLANNED FOR 31-DATE TOUR TREK KICKING OFF SEPT 25
(July 7, 2015 via Paste Magazine) — Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne will tour together this fall on Solid Soul, a tour kicking off September 25 in San Francisco, CA at the storied Fillmore Auditorium – a fitting locale for the tour premiere because of its history as a venue known for creative show lineups. Two of the great living vocalists in American music, they are expected to play their own sets and also duet as part of the show’s finale.
Soul/gospel icon, GRAMMY Award-winner, and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Mavis Staples has already had a busy 2015 as she is the subject of a full-length documentary “Mavis!,” ANTI- released her new EP Your Good Fortune, and she completed sessions for Pops Staples’ last album Don’t Lose This. She has appeared on The Daily Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, The GRAMMY Awards, Newport Folk Festival, NPR All Things Considered, In Performance at the White House, the Kennedy Center Honors, and CBS Sunday Morning. Her most recent two full-length albums have been produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco.
Seven-time GRAMMY nominee Joan Osborne, a Kentucky native, has earned a reputation as both a commanding, passionate performer and a frank, emotionally evocative songwriter. Since her smash hit triple-platinum album Relish, Joan has sung soul music as part of the GRAMMY Award-winning documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown with Motown Records’ Funk Brothers. She also has recorded three albums of soul music in How Sweet It Is (called “potent” by All Music Guide), Breakfast in Bed, and her 2012 album Bring It On Home, which included interpretations of “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Champagne and Wine,” among others, earned a Best Blues Album GRAMMY nomination.
Mavis Staples said, “Joan is such a loving soul sister, she spreads light and joy with every note. I am so grateful to have had her as a friend over the years, and we are going to have big fun on the road this fall.”
Osborne said, “I’m beyond thrilled to be joining my musical hero, Mavis Staples, on tour this fall. To sing with her every night will be an honor and a great privilege. I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve this, but I cannot wait to get on that tour bus with Mavis!”
The warm embrace of Staples’ voice is the constant from the delta-inflected gospel sound she helped create in the 1950s, to the engaged protest of the civil rights era, and then, amazingly, on pop radio in the Stax era with a series of soul anthems, from “I’ll Take You There” to “Respect Yourself” and into a new era of Americana and soul sounds in the 21st century.
Osborne’s talents have put her into a wide variety of artistic contexts, at which she’s excelled. She joined forces with the surviving members of the Grateful Dead when they regrouped to tour in 2003 as The Dead and produced two albums for the great blues trio the Holmes Brothers. She’s shared stages with a wide range of performers, including Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Luciano Pavarotti, Emmylou Harris, and Taj Mahal. Recently, Osborne has toured and recorded as a member of Trigger Hippy, which also includes rising Americana star Jackie Greene and Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman.
Osborne’s latest album, last year’s Love and Hate features contributions from Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and backup vocals by Gail Ann Dorsey, Catherine Russell and Ollabelle member Amy Helm in addition to producer Jack Petruzzelli’s (Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright) stellar guitar work.
MAVIS STAPLES AND JOAN OSBORNE SOLID SOUL TOUR DATES
September 25, 2015 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
September 26, 2015 – Modesto, CA – Gallo Center for the Arts
September 29, 2015 – San Luis Obispo, CA – Cal Poly Arts
September 30, 2015 – Davis, CA – Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts
October 3, 2015 – Cerritos, CA – Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts
October 6, 2015 – Phoenix, AZ – Musical Instrument Museum
October 7, 2015 – Phoenix, AZ – Musical Instrument Museum
October 8, 2015 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
October 10, 2015 – The Woodlands, TX – Dosey Doe Coffee House
October 11, 2015 – Baton Rouge, LA – Manship Theatre
October 24, 2015 – Clinton Township, MI – Macomb Center for the Performing Arts
October 26, 2015 – Binghampton, NY – Anderson Center for the Arts
October 27, 2015 – University Park, PA – Penn State University
October 28, 2015 – Tarrytown, NY – Tarrytown Music Hall
October 30, 2015 – Stony Brook, NY – Stallar Center for the Arts
October 31, 2015 – Washington DC – George Washington University
November 1, 2015 – Newport News, VA – Ferguson Center for the Arts
November 4, 2015 – New York, NY – 92nd Street Y
November 6, 2015 – Schenectady, NY – Arts Center & Theater of Schenectady
November 7, 2015 – Boston, MA – Celebrity Series of Boston
November 8, 2015 – Providence, RI – Providence Performing Arts
November 10, 2015 – Keene, NH – New Hampshire Colonial Theatre
November 11, 2015 – St. Johnsbury, VT – Kingdom County Productions
November 12, 2015 – Portsmouth, NH – Portsmouth Music Hall
November 14, 2015 – Englewood, NJ – Bergen Performing Arts Center
November 15, 2015 – Richmond, VA – University of Richmond
November 16, 2015 – Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre of Durham
November 18, 2015 – Atlanta, GA – Georgia Institute of Technology
November 19, 2015 – Oxford, AL – Oxford Performing Arts Center
November 21, 2015 – Cutler Bay, FL – South Miami Dade Cultural Center
November 22, 2015 – Clearwater, FL – Ruth Eckerd Hall