Music: Mavis Staples / Jhelisa. Leicester 20th April

Mavis Staples - legend; Jhelisa Anderson - newish kid on the block. Both from Mississippi, both performing in a half full De Montfort Hall on the last date of their under-publicised U.K. tour.

We'll come to the legend in a bit. What about Jhelisa? Make no mistake about it she has the potential to be a massive star. Her voice has astonishing range and power which she used to great effect singing to the accompaniment of a wonderful jazz trio led by pianist Robert Mitchell. The second half of her set was a tribute to Nina Simone, the opening numbers echoed Weather Report.

On the night "the legend" had the stagecraft, "the new kid" had the voice. Jhelisa maybe needs to use her extraordinary voice with a bit more subtlety. In fact it would have been handy if she could have lent a bit of her voice to Mavis who was suffering from a throat infection but was determined to get out there and perform. She was to some extent offered protection by her three-piece backing band and brilliant backing singers.

But where Mavis scored was in her complete command of the stage and her wonderfully enthusiastic presence. Of course her throat infection affected her performance but given that so much of her music depends on funk and soul as much as melody, she managed to deliver a set of classics including "For What It's Worth", "The Weight", "Respect Yourself" and of course, "I'll Take You There."

And when she told tales of how Pop Staples,in anger, wrote "Why Am I Treated So Bad?" about the abuse of nine black schoolkids in Little Rock, and how Martin Luther King embraced the songs, the shivers ran down the spine. So Mavis got through on sheer guts and determination - maybe a metaphor for her whole life. The encore was "We Shall Overcome." The enhusiastic audience was glad that she did. Despite the misfiring vocal chords I was pleased to be in her presence.

Click on the title to this post to take you to a classic Staple Singers video.