Don’t Lose This - Pops Staples

Pops Staples the guitar player is something of an idol for me, holding that peak spot on the podium of the masters of tone. I co-founded a band virtually revolving around my attempt to emulate (poorly) his iconic tremolo-soaked electric guitar sound. It was foolish to attempt; imitation is always transparent and almost never uncanny. But presuppose an uncanny imitation. What would be the point? Flattery, as the impressionist would have you believe? Theft? Deception? Herein lies my major problem with Don’t Lose This, an album that I like overall but that leaves me a trail of moralistic pondering that distracts my attention.

The songs here, at least fifteen years old, are great, as one might expect. Of particular interest are the opening track, “Somebody is Watching” and “No News Is Good News.” The former is that rare outsider-penned track (the song was written by Brenda Burns) that it seems could have been easily penned by the performer (other notable examples: “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” written by Liz Anderson / performed by Merle Haggard an"The Partisan" written by Anna Marly and Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie / performed by Leonard Cohen). Additionally, Staples’s self-assured vocal delivery comes about as close to evidence for a benevolent presence as I am likely to ever acknowledge. The latter song is a fascinating contribution from a major civil rights figure who sounds tired of leading while attracting the attention of apathetic, unhelpful hangers-on and who cannot continue to apologize for the failings of his fellow human beings that have made playgrounds into “slaygrounds.”

Interestingly, it was in examining these two gems (and, to a lesser extent, “Friendship,” which is a sweet “Lean On Me”-esque ode) that I stumbled upon the aforementioned problem. The clues started in the production. Why would Pops Staples’s legendary guitar be pushed all the way to the right channel on these full band tracks and not on the rawer tracks such as “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and “Better Home?” And why is there a precipitous drop in bluesy texture / expression in those band tracks? I suspected foul play. Internet scouring produced very little evidence of this until I read an interview with Mavis Staples in which she remarked (I’m paraphrasing) that she could hardly tell the difference between Jeff Tweedy’s overdubs and her father’s own guitar playing. Yikes. On the one hand, I appreciate the sonic clues Tweedy left for us to figure this out, but on the other, I can’t imagine why such trickery would have been necessary in the first place.

Don’t Lose This is a perfectly enjoyable listen that suffers from what we can generously call over-thought. It attempts to recapture the spirit of the classic Staples Singers records, but it never quite gets there. Reach for Uncloudy Day, Swing Low, or Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, all of which have been recently reissued on the incomparable Mississippi Records, instead. As a final aside, the cover of “Gotta Serve Somebody” is a lot of fun, especially for a Dylanologist, and wisely omits some of the more square-peg-round-hole rhymes of the original verses. Dylan, who changed many of the lyrics in his live shows almost immediately after recording, likely approves.

3/5