dBpm / ANTI- RECORDS TO RELEASE POPS STAPLES’ DON’T LOSE THIS ON FEBRUARY 17
Previously-unreleased album features updated production by
Jeff Tweedy
Pitchfork Premieres First Track Today
On Feb. 17 dBpm/ANTI- Records will release Don’t Lose This, an album of previously unreleased music by the late singer and guitarist Pops Staples. Featuring Pops on guitar with vocals by Pops and the famed Staple Singers of Mavis, Cleotha and Yvonne, Don’t Lose This presents 10 songs originally recorded and produced by Pops and Mavis in 1999 but left unfinished at the time of his death in 2000. Now complete, the album features new production by Jeff Tweedy, as well as new bass and guitar by Jeff Tweedy and new drums by Spencer Tweedy.
The album takes its title directly from the instruction Pops gave to his daughter as the two listened to the unfinished recording before his death: “Don’t lose this.”
Mavis didn’t, and in 2014 brought the tapes of her father’s last work to her recent collaborator, Tweedy, for completion. The two had previously teamed up on Mavis’ recent solo releases, One True Vine and the Grammy-winning You Are Not Alone.
The two worked together on Pops’ original recordings to highlight what Tweedy and many others view as Pops’ greatest strengths: his timeless voice and passionate guitar playing. The resulting album serves as a testament of Pops’ enduring talent, with an emotional delivery as complete as any previous recording.
Patriarch of the renowned Staple Singers, friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. and musical contemporary of Muddy Waters, BB King and Howlin’ Wolf, Pops Staples was an integral force in American music until his passing 15 years ago.
Hear “Somebody Was Watching Me” from Don’t Lose This now at Pitchfork .