Mavis Staples & Levon Helm Carry Me Home (2-LP)

(Anti) 12 tracks, gatefold cover

Iconic singer Mavis Staples is an alchemist of American music. One of her most beloved musical moments in her 70-plus year career was her riveting performance in Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz, performing with The Band The Weight - a moment that launched a lifelong friendship between her and Levon Helm.

Staples came to Woodstock, NY to perform as part of Helm's famous "Midnight Ramble" series, and the concert that followed - now available for the first time on the stirring new ANTI Records release Carry Me Home - would mark a personal high point for both artists.
Carry Me Home was recorded live in the summer of 2011 and features two of the most iconic voices of the past century coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. The setlist that night was righteous, mixing old 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.
Reading between the lines, however, there is an even more poignant story at play here. Neither Staples nor Helm knew this would be their last performance together - the collection marks one of Helm's last recordings before his death - and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tracks like This May Be The Last Time and Farther Along take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that is both a time capsule and a memorial, a happy homecoming and a tender farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert - and a friendship - preserved for eternity. Staples and the evening's soulful backup singers do most of the vocal work here, but perhaps the album's conclusion, The Weight, which features Helm as lead vocalist for the first time, is the concert's most emotional moment.