A Pleasant Conundrum: Mavis Staples Vs. Syl Johnson

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 26, 2010 7:43PM

We love old school soul music and agree with Peter Margasak's assessment of tomorrow night's choice between Mavis Staples at the Park West and Syl Johnson at the Old Town School of Folk Music being a pleasant dilemma.

Johnson is riding a wave of publicity, including a cover story by Margasak in this week's Reader, following a new Numero Group box set dedicated to his old Hi and Twinight Records years, Complete Mythology. Johnson is to Chicago soul music as Bridgeport is to Chicago neighborhoods: not for beginners. For the beginners looking for a dip in the pool, we recommend Chicago Twinight Soul, which covers the basic hits such as "Different Strokes," "Concrete Reservation," and Johnson's signature tune, "Is It Because I'm Black?" in one neat package.

With the gun put to our head, we would prefer to see Staples, whose new Jeff Tweedy-produced record, You Are Not Alone (Anti-), finds her in fine form. The album is more laid back than the Ry Cooder-produced We'll Never Turn Back, and Staples has a chemistry with Tweedy that is simply palpable in each song.

It's choices like these that make Saturday nights out so great