Mavis Staples has been singing through American darkness for longer than most of us have been alive. The sole surviving member of the Staple Singers, she provided the literal soundtrack for the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery — her family’s voice carrying down the road alongside the footsteps of people who knew exactly what they were risking. Now 86 and still touring, she arrives at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland on Sunday, October 25, with a new album that doesn’t soften a thing. Sad and Beautiful World says what it says.
About the Show
Sad and Beautiful World (ANTI- Records, November 7, 2025), her fourteenth studio album, was produced by Brad Cook, known for his work with Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, and Nathaniel Rateliff. The record spans seven decades of the American songbook: reimagined covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed,” Tom Waits’s “Chicago,” and Kevin Morby’s “Beautiful Strangers” alongside original compositions. The guest list crosses every generation: Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy (89 years old on “Chicago”), Jeff Tweedy, Derek Trucks, Justin Vernon, Hozier, Allison Russell, Katie Crutchfield, and MJ Lenderman. The first track recorded for the album, “Human Mind,” was written for and about Mavis by Hozier and Allison Russell, two artists paying tribute to someone who taught them what music can be for.
Mojo gave the album five stars, calling it “one of the best albums of her triumphant second act.” ANTI- Records frames the record plainly: “Grim days call for fierce love, and Mavis Staples is laying it down.”
The Staple Singers’ story is inseparable from American history. Beginning with her father Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the family placed eight Top 40 singles through 1975, including “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again,” while opening for Martin Luther King Jr. at civil rights rallies, earning the name “God’s greatest hitmakers.” Staples holds multiple Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, is a Kennedy Center Honoree, and has been inducted into the blues, rock, and gospel halls of fame. Her voice, in the words of her own site, carries “resonant phrasing and vocals so warm and textured, they feel like a physical presence.”
Venue & Logistics
The Paramount Theatre is an 838-seat historic theater in Rutland, Vermont, and a rare stop in the north-country region for an artist with this much history behind her. At this scale, the room puts the music close.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets