Mavis Staples Earns Best Roots Performance at 2016 Grammy Awards

By Timothy Yap Feb 15, 2016 05:13 PM EST

Gospel and soul veteran Mavis Staples has won her second Grammy tonight. Fresh out of the press, it has been announced that Staples won the 2016 Grammy Awards Best American Roots Performance award, for the song "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean."

Excited over the win, Staples tweeted: "I won my second Grammy--amazing!! Thank you!" Similiarly, her recording label ANTI Records rejoices: " We are SO PROUD to say that @MavisStaples has been awarded Best American Roots Performance for "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" @TheGRAMMYs ."

Staples was not at the pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony, so the Recording Academy accepted the award on her behalf. "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is on Staples' album Your Good Fortune, available for download on Amazon.

On February 19, she is set to release her new album Livin' on a High Note (ANTI-). Refusing to fade away, she continues to work and tour incessantly, remaining as vital, engaged, and true as always. There is no persona; she is, simply and untouchably, Mavis-and Livin' on a High Note is the symphony of her life.

"I think about this album as a new beginning in my career," says Mavis. "I'm living on a high note, I'm floating on air. I know I don't have as much time on this Earth as I've already had, but I see it as saying, 'Mavis has been here, y'all.' Before I move on, I just want to leave some Mavis with you that you're not used to hearing that might keep you perked up a little longer. I want to leave you with some joy and love, and some don't-forget-me songs."

Mavis and her team recruited a unique dozen of today's heralded and up-and-coming artists to write songs for the record. The names gathered here impress and excite: Neko Case, Justin Vernon, Nick Cave, Ben Harper, Tune-Yards, Aloe Blacc, Benjamin Booker, The Head and the Heart, M. Ward-with Ward also tapped to produce the album in full.

"I've been singing my freedom songs and I wanted to stretch out and sing some songs that were new," says Mavis. "I told the writers I was looking for some joyful songs. I want to leave something to lift people up; I'm so busy making people cry, not from sadness, but I'm always telling a part of history that brought us down and I'm trying to bring us back up. These songwriters gave me a challenge. They gave me that feeling of, 'Hey, I can hang! I can still do this!' There's a variety, and it makes me feel refreshed and brand new. Just like Benjamin Booker wrote on the opening track, 'I got friends and I got love around me, I got people, the people who love me.' I'm living on a high note, I'm above the clouds. I'm just so grateful. I must be the happiest old girl in the world. Yes, indeed."

Tags : mavis staples grammy awards 2016 mavis staples best roots performance see that my grave is kept clean mavis staples news mavis staples new album