Even if The Staples Singers was a vocal group partnership, Mavis Staples’ hot and soulful voice stood first among equals. So it’s little surprise that Stax recorded and released a few Mavis solo albums on their Volt subsidiary.

Mavis Staples was mainly recorded at Stax studios between February and April 1969 with a band of the label’s best: Steve Cropper on guitar, Duck Dunn on bass, Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Marvell Thomas, sometimes joined by Bobby Manuel or Isaac Hayes, on keyboards, replacing Booker T. Jones, who was slowly growing disenchanted with his Stax prospects. The opening cut was recorded at Muscle Shoals.

Mavis busts off chops in other directions, such as the Bacharach-David classic “A House is Not a Home” and set-ending Sam Cooke cover “You Send Me.” But the primary influences over Mavis Staples in early ‘69 were two strong-willed, strong-voiced soul music cornerstones: Mavis’ cover of “Son of a Preacher Man” and swivel-hipped callout “You’re Driving Me (To the Arms of a Stranger)” are inspired, Aretha Franklin-like stompings; Otis Redding composed the uptempo rocker “Security” and left bloodied and bruised fingerprints all over the painful slow blues “Good to Me.”

Stax/Volt released “You’re Driving Me” as a single in August ‘69. This single failed to chart, and in retrospect shows one point of contention that had begun to break up the label from the inside out: Cropper actually produced these sessions, but when the single was released the production was credited to Al Bell.

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