Biography
Roebuck "Pops" Staples, the founding figure behind one of the most enduring dynasties in American music, collaborated across eras with artists ranging from Robert Johnson through Curtis Mayfield. Born December 28, 1914, in Winona, Mississippi, he maintained a close friendship with Charley Patton and performed alongside Johnson as well as Son House and Robert Jr. Lockwood, sharpening his skills into those of a first-rate blues guitarist. Drawn more deeply toward sacred music, he entered the Golden Trumpets in 1937; after settling in Chicago four years later he joined the city's established trumpet jubilee ensembles. Within the next decade he regularly accompanied his daughters Mavis and Cleotha and son Pervis at church services, and the family soon launched a professional career under the name the Staple Singers. Although rooted in gospel, the group attained its initial commercial breakthrough with a modern soul approach developed in the late 1960s under the Stax imprint; by the early 1970s they ventured into funk and secured a major pop success with the single "I'll Take You There." Staples had not issued solo recordings before the 1992 album Peace to the Neighborhood, which steered him back toward his foundational blues and gospel influences. The next release, Father Father from 1994, received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. He also took roles in motion pictures such as the 1998 feature Wag the Dog. Toward the close of 2000 he sustained a concussion in a household fall and died on December 19 at age 85. Material left incomplete the year before his passing was finished by Mavis along with Jeff Tweedy and Tweedy's son Spencer, then issued in 2015 by dBpm under the title Don't Lose This.
Albums
