Mavis Staples and Wilco chief Jeff Tweedy appeared on The Late Present With Stephen Colbert Thursday evening. Collectively, they carried out a rousing model of “Freedom Freeway.” The track was initially recorded in 1965 by the Staple Singers, showing on their album of the same name. Staples, Tweedy, and a full band performed the track to a stay viewers at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, the place Stephen Colbert has been internet hosting his present all week along with the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference. Try the efficiency of “Freedom Freeway” under.
Whereas introducing Staples and Tweedy, Colbert famous that “Freedom Freeway” was recorded over six a long time in the past “proper right here in Chicago.” He then welcomed Staples and Tweedy, whom he known as “two of my favourite Chicagoans.”
However Staples and Tweedy don’t simply hail from the identical metropolis—they’re longtime collaborators. In 2010, Tweedy produced and co-wrote Staples’ album You Are Not Alone, and so they continued their work collectively on her 2013 follow-up, One True Vine.
In 2017, Staples and Tweedy launched a joint LP titled If All I Was Was Black, a politically charged assortment of songs they penned collectively. At initially of the pandemic, they reconvened for the track “All in It Together.” Proceeds from that observe went towards My Block, My Hood, My City—a Chicago group that was serving to senior residents get the necessities they wanted to fight the virus.
Staples issued her most up-to-date single, “Worthy,” earlier this summer time. Tweedy, in the meantime, will quickly be touring america.
