Sign up for our mailing list Real artists creating records on their own terms
Close

Sign up for our mailing list

News

Listen To Mavis Staples And Levon Helm’s Version Of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”
Tuesday, April 26th, 2022

Listen To Mavis Staples And Levon Helm’s Version Of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”

Today Mavis Staples and Levon Helm’s spirited rendition of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” has been released featuring previously unseen footage of the two of them performing the song together; watch and listen below. 

“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”: https://youtu.be/fFjVZL_-SKY  

The pair’s mutual love and admiration is on full display on ‘Carry Me Home’, the new album out May 20 which features a mix of Staples’ and Helm’s bands operating at the peak of their powers as they work their way through an eclectic setlist of tunes made famous by the likes of Simone, The Impressions, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones. 
 
Captured live in the summer of 2011, ‘Carry Me Home’ showcases two of the past century’s most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. The setlist was righteous that night, mixing vintage gospel and soul with timeless folk and blues, and the performances were loose and playful, fueled by an ecstatic atmosphere that was equal parts family reunion and tent revival.  
 
Read between the lines, though, and there’s an even more poignant story at play here. Neither Staples nor Helm knew that this would be their last performance together—the collection marks one of Helm’s final recordings before his death—and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tunes like “This May Be The Last Time” and “Farther Along” take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that’s at once a time capsule and a memorial, a blissful homecoming and a fond farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert—and friendship—preserved for the ages. 
 
“It never crossed my mind that it might be the last time we’d see each other,” says Staples. “He was so full of life and so happy that week. He was the same old Levon I’d always known, just a beautiful spirit inside and out.” 
 
Though Staples and Helm got on like childhood pals, the two were already both stars in their own right by the time they first met at the 1976 filming of ‘The Last Waltz’. Critics would go on to cite The Staple Singers’ collaboration with The Band on “The Weight” as a high point of the film, and Mavis and Levon would remain close friends in the decades to come, but it was unclear if the pair would ever get to sing together again after Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. Luckily, they were able to capture another performance of this song together at the 2011 session. 

“The place just went wild when Levon sang,” says Staples. “It was a real full-circle moment to be performing that song together again.” 
 
Staples and Amy Helm will be performing together on the album’s release day, May 20, at Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the Dirt Farmer Festival on May 21 with the Midnight Ramble Band and others.

Browse by Artist

2077All Artists 99Tom Waits 73Mavis Staples 59Neko Case 51Lost In The Trees 50Sean Rowe 48Dr. Dog 45The Milk Carton Kids
41Jolie Holland 40Bettye LaVette 37Man Man 36Son Little 35Tinariwen 33DeVotchKa 33Tim Fite 31Islands 31Grinderman 29Glen Hansard 28Saintseneca 27Galactic 27Wilco 26Andy Shauf 24Xenia Rubinos 24Michael Franti and Spe... 24The Drums 24Delicate Steve 22Doe Paoro 22William Elliott Whitmo... 22Bob Mould 21The Frames 21Nick Cave & The Bad Se... 20Christopher Paul Stell... 20Joe Henry 19Sage Francis 19Cass McCombs 19Yves Jarvis 19Booker T. Jones 18Deafheaven 18Calexico 18Gary V 17Yann Tiersen 17John K. Samson 16The Antlers 16Jason Lytle 16Ramblin Jack Elliott 16Danny Elfman 14Daniel Lanois 14Jeremy Ivey 13Billy Bragg 13The Dream Syndicate 13Madi Diaz 12Peter Silberman 12Leyla McCalla 12Xavier Rudd 12Combo Chimbita 12Girlpool 11Roky Erickson 11Mose Allison 11Purr 11Lyrics Born 11The Weakerthans 11Ryan Pollie 11Rain Machine 11Glitterer 11Jade Jackson 10Half Waif 10The Swell Season 10High Pulp 10The Melodic 10So Much Light 10Alfa Mist 10Darrin Bradbury 9Hey, King! 9M. Ward 9N.A.S.A. 9Cameron Avery 9Lido Pimienta 9Marianne Faithfull 9Curtis Harding 9Josiah Johnson 9Wynonna 9Moor Mother 8Katy Kirby 8Greg Graffin 8Christian Lee Hutson 8Slow Pulp 8The Coup 8Solillaquists of Sound 8Cadence Weapon 7Richard Reed Parry 7Dead Man's Bones 7Alec Ounsworth 7Title Fight 7Ben Harper and Charlie... 7Beth Orton 7Elliott Smith 7Ben Harper 7Kelly Hogan 7Kate Davis 7Japandroids 7Eddie Izzard 6Broken Twin 6Busdriver 6A Girl Called Eddy 6Rafiq Bhatia 6Os Mutantes 6Deradoorian 6Kate Bush 5James Brandon Lewis 5Art Moore 5Kristine Leschper 5Keaton Henson 5The Field 5Jasmyn 5Foxwarren 5Ezra Furman 5Beat Connection 5The Tallest Man On Ear... 5One Day As A Lion 5Scott McMicken and THE... 5Bonny Doon 4Sparklehorse 4The Good Ones 4Pops Staples 4sunking 4Marketa Irglova 4Ersi Arvizu 4Jackson+Sellers 3MJ Lenderman 3Danny Cohen 3Walter Wolfman Washing... 3Plains 3Mavis Staples & Levon... 3Mothers 3Sierra Leones Refugee... 3Marc Ribot 3Waxahatchee 3Petra Haden 2Jeff Tweedy 2Sam Akpro 2Fleet Foxes 2Various Artists: RANGO 1Lightman Jarvis Ecstat... 1Youth Group 1Merle Haggard 1Taylor Vick 1case/lang/veirs 1Joe Strummer And The M... 1The Locust 1Tricky 1Antibalas 1Simian Mobile Disco 1Various Artists: ROGUE... 1Rogue's Gallery 1ANTI- Records 1Solomon Burke 1Kronos Quartet with Br... 1Porter Wagoner 1Blackalicious
See Full List+