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See Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy Close Out ‘Late Show’ DNC Run With ‘Freedom Highway’

Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples closed out a week of The Late Show’s DNC coverage with a performance of the civil rights-era anthem "Freedom Highway."

The two Chicago legends and frequent collaborators took the stage at the Auditorium Theatre, where Stephen Colbert’s show has been headquartered this week to deliver their updated rendition of the track that was penned to mark the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. As Colbert noted in the introduction, the song was recorded in Chicago nearly 60 years ago, with Mavis — the last living member of the Staple Singers family — on vocals. Tweedy was served as producer, chief instrumentalist, and co-songwriter on three of Staples’ studio albums over the past 15 years: 2010’s You Are Not Alone, 2013’s One True Vine, and 2017’s If All I Was Was Black.

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