#FeaturingJeffTweedy - Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone (2010)
Jeff Tweedy helpt zijn vrienden. Naast de immense Wilco-catalogus grossiert Jeff ook nog solo. En alsof dat nog niet voldoende is, verleent hij ook nog eens veelvuldig hand- en spandiensten aan iedereen die het hem beleefd durft vragen. Een weekje "featuring Jeff Tweedy".
Als ze samen spelen, introduceert ze hem steevast als “My little baby brother”. Ze vonden elkaar voor het eerst op 'You’re Not Alone' in 2010 en het sloeg onmiddellijk aan, want de Grammy voor Best Americana album was de hunne. Ze deden het nog eens dunnetjes over op 'One True Vine' in 2016
De songs van Tweedy en zijn manier van produceren zijn gefundenes Fressen voor soullegende Mavis Staples. Hoe dat zo kwam, mag ze zelf vertellen: “My manager, Dave Bartlett, told me at back in '07 that Jeff Tweedy wanted to come down and do a song with me. I said that's cool, but actually he didn't make it that time. He was just coming in from a tour and he wanted to rest and be with his son, so he called and bowed out on that one. The next time I saw him was at the Hideout, when I did the live session (2008's 'Live: Hope At The Hideout'), and I met him then. He was telling me how he enjoyed the show and he thought the band was really good and so on and so forth.
The next thing I knew, Dave was saying, 'Mavis, Jeff Tweedy wants to produce you.' I said, 'That's great,' 'cause I never thought it would happen. But sure enough it did. He had songs for us to listen to, and we ended up choosing maybe about seven of those songs. He was just so up on what I do. He was so into the Staples [Singers], and he loved Pops. He had all of our songs from the fifties and sixties on his iPod. It surprised me. He has songs that Pops would play for me when I was a kid. Two of the songs were actually from before I was born. When Jeff played them, I said, 'Where in the world did you come up with those? You're taking me back to my childhood now.'
Jeff wrote three new songs right there in the studio. I'd just watch him write, watch him get on the guitar and put them together, 'cause it's amazing. I used to write years ago when I was younger, but mostly I let Pops do the writing. Jeff came up with these incredible lyrics. I chose one of the songs for the title of the CD, 'You Are Not Alone'. He came to me with three songs and said, 'Mavis, what do you think of doing some of these old Staple Singers songs?' I said, 'I think that would be great!' One is Don't Knock, and Tweedy's playing the bass on it. And Patrick [Sansone], the keyboardist for Wilco, is playing on the song. The others are Downward Road and Too Close To Heaven/I'm On My Way To Heaven Anyhow. They just came out beautifully."