The New York Times
- Dwight Garner
[Kot] is consistently good in his well-reported new book on the Staples's sound, and on their story, which is involving from beginning to end…I'll Take You There…is rich musical history.
Publishers Weekly10/21/2013
Chicago Tribune music critic Kot lets popular music icon Mavis Staples, lead singer of the Staples Singers, have her say in this rousing, chatty bio of 60 years of performing. Written with the cooperation of Mavis and family, this down home tale begins with Mavis's ambitious father, Pop Staples, breaking away from a hardscrabble life in the Mississippi Delta, gathering his young family around him to start an upward climb through the Southern gospel circuit of the '50s and '60s, featuring Mavis, the skinny little girl with the grown-up voice.
