Two Grammy Winners, One Stage – The Burt

Manitoba PostArts

WINNIPEG, MB – Blues icon Jonny Lang and Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples are coming to the Burton Cummings Theatre, October 3.

Johnny Lang is known as one of the best live performers and guitarists of his generation. Lang has had the opportunity to support or perform with some of the most respected legends in music. He has shared the stage with everyone from The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Aerosmith and Buddy Guy, who he continues to tour with today.

At the beginning of her eighth decade of singing truth, Staples has delivered If All I Was Was Black (ANTI- Records), ten songs about America today, where the present is filled with ghosts of the past. “Nothing has changed,” Mavis said in early August, just days before the world watched neo-Nazis march with swastika flags in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a young woman was murdered. “We are still in it.”

If All I Was Was Black represents Mavis’ third collaboration with songwriter and producer (and Wilco frontman) Jeff Tweedy. Their first partnership in 2010, You Are Not Alone, won a Grammy Award for Best Americana album. Their second effort together, One True Vine, was a Grammy nominee. But If All I Was Was Black marks the first time Tweedy has composed an entire album of original songs for Mavis’ legendary voice and a nation she’s uniquely poised to address.

With files from True NorthSports and Entertainment