Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne join forces for Solid Soul

When Joan Osborne got the call that soul icon Mavis Staples wanted to go on a tour with her, she was both flattered and surprised.

The singer best known for her hit “One of Us” has had an unexpectedly eclectic career since her mainstream breakthrough in the mid-’90s. But all along, to almost anyone she talked to, Osborne said she would sing the praises of Staples. Since starting with her family band The Staple Singers, the 76-year-old Staples has become a true living legend. She has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and chosen as a National Heritage Fellowship Award recipient.

“I’ve been a fan of Mavis Staples for decades. She is one of the people I’ve always looked up to as a role model and hero. I’ve been pretty vocal about that over the years,” Osborne said from her home in Brooklyn. “I’ve always said I’d love to work with Mavis. So to me this was a dream come true.”

That dream becomes a reality this weekend as the two women kick off a 31-date national tour. The Solid Soul tour pulls into the Gallo Center for the Arts on Saturday, Sept. 26, with Staples and Osborne sharing a double bill.

This will be the first time the two singers have been on tour together, though they’ve shared the stage a couple of times during large, all-star tribute shows. They will both sing their own sets, and then join for some final numbers together. Osborne said her role is to do what Staples tells her to.

“For me, I’m just there to do whatever she needs and wants me to do. I’m very happy to follow,” Osborne said. “When I was a younger singer, Mavis was one of the people I tried to emulate – that depth, that rough texture and impassioned delivery. She was one of the people I modeled myself after. You can try to be like Mavis Staples, but you can never imitate her.”

Indeed Staples’ stature stretches past the music community and into the history books. The Staples Sisters became a key figure in the civil rights movement, lending their voices to the cause and working with everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Bob Dylan. Through the course of the group’s career, the members had hits with “Uncloudy Day,” “Freedom Highway,” “I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself” and “Let’s Do It Again.”

More recently, Stephen Colbert selected Staples as one of the first musical guests on his new late-night talk show. She appeared on his premiere episode earlier this month as a featured singer in an all-star jam on the song “Everyday People.”

“(Staples) has this incredible warmth that radiated from her when she gets on stage. It is this joy of living that comes out of her. That’s something that I try to do myself. It’s just to spread the love, that’s why we’re here,” Osborne said.

Part of the Solid Soul show also will be reinterpreting some of Osborne’s music, which has ranged from rock to folk to country and beyond, with Staple’s house band. The trio of musicians and backing vocalists should bring a more soulful and gospel tinge to all of the material.

For Osborne, her musical journey has been one of crisscrossed genres and multiple mutations. She has spent time in the Top 40 world, sang lead for the members of the legendary jam band The Grateful Dead, toured with Motown session player greats The Funk Brothers, recorded a country album and now has a new all-star roots rock band called Trigger Hippy.

“I’ve been really fortunate to be welcomed into so many different musical words,” she said. “For me it’s following my heart and the fact that I love so many different kinds of music.”

Yet, she said, many of the genres she has dabbled with over the years have a common origin back to American roots music, which helped to spawn soul, country and more. She admits this moving back and forth between styles has made her harder to pin down for listeners and labels.

“When you follow the roots down, it’s almost like it has the same source. Once you’ve tapped into that, you can go into all these different arenas and be able to connect with different kinds of players because you have found that source material,” she said. “As a commercial move, it might not have been smartest thing to do, but I certainly have not been bored.”

Still, Osborne has no qualms about revisiting her biggest commercial success, her triple platinum-selling 1995 release “Relish.” The album, which includes “One of Us,” will be rereleased Oct. 30 as a special 20th anniversary package with a new CD, bonus tracks, digital downloads and double-vinyl edition. The seven-time Grammy nominee said she is happy music fans have continued to embrace her over the years.

And now, with her new tour, she is ready embrace her own role as fan and help Staples shine.

“I have a pretty good knowledge of her material. So if she wants to be spontaneous, I’m ready,” she said. “If she wants to do something from 1972 or great sides of her 1950s singles, I’m ready. Put me in coach, I can do it.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne join forces for Solid Soul."