Two musical giants, the gospel singer Mavis Staples and the guitarist and producer Ry Cooder, had only met once before working together last year. But their unusual recording session produced the electrifying “We’ll Never Turn Back,” one of the most memorable collections of Ms. Staples’s 50-year career.

In that half century, Ms. Staples has filled the role of lead singer with the classic soul group the Staple Singers — together with sister Cleotha, brother Pervis, and father Roebuck, known as Pops — and collaborated with the likes of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Prince, who dubbed her “the epitome of soul.” Or, as Nona Hendryx, of the group Labelle, once said, “When Mavis opens her mouth to sing, she embodies and expresses the African-American condition called ‘Soul’ — Spiritual, Overtly Sexual, Uniquely Emotional, and Language Transcendent.” Now the path has led her to New York, where she will perform Tuesday at the 22nd Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

“I never sing a song the same way twice,” Ms. Staples said recently in her husky voice, bubbling over the phone from her native Chicago. “I’d get bored if I did. So expect something different, especially given the occasion.”

Eagerly relating the story behind the new recording, she said, “Let’s go back to 1994, when Pops won a Grammy for ‘Father, Father,’ which Ry produced. After the ceremony, he comes up to me and says, ‘Your father taught me everything I know.’ I’m surprised, so I ask Pops when he gave Ry lessons. He said that he didn’t. Ry had just been studying him on his own. So time passes, and I’m planning to make a new record, and my manager tells me Ry wants to produce it. ‘Oh Lord, you have to be kidding,’ I say, ‘I couldn’t ask for anything more.'”

It’s pretty hard to shake up Ms. Staples, who entertained Martin Luther King and presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton, performed in films and television shows, and spent at least one night in jail after a protest march. But Mr. Cooder, who recently introduced America to Cuban music with “Buena Vista Social Club,” managed to do just that with his recording methods. His first move during their initial conversation in Chicago was to ask for her late father’s amplifier so he could plug in his guitar.

“Then, I knew we were going to be all right,” Ms. Staples said. “First we talked about doing some 18th-century songs, but I suggested we should be more up to date, like what we sang during the civil rights marches — ‘Eyes on the Prize,’ and ’99 and a Half Won’t Do.’ A lot of things are no better now than they were then, after all. Look at Katrina. Letting people die in that stadium. Things still aren’t fixed. That’s why I wrote ‘Mine Own Eyes,’ about the racism I’ve seen in my long life. I thought we’d rehearse the day before, as everyone usually does. But no. He didn’t want to rehearse.”

She paused a long while before continuing, to emphasize just how extraordinary the experience was for her. “He’ll record everything on the first take or at the most, the second take,” she said. “I’ve never done this before. He says it’s the best way to capture the spirit. So I start singing what comes to me. Ry’s playing Pops’s licks. He sounds just like him; it’s eerie. I’m calling out his name. And soon I’m telling stories and remembering things I’ve seen in Mississippi, and awful things Pops told me. I’m so fired up that I’m running around the studio. I just keep singing. He leads and then I lead. He kept saying, ‘What’s next?’ Eight days later when we finished, he says, ‘My goodness, Mavis. You’re inspiring. This has been so much fun.’ I think that’s what you hear on the album.”

Considering all her years with the Staple Singers and as a soloist, Ms. Staples, 68, should expect to inspire people, something she started doing in 1950 with her family in local churches and on a weekly radio show. After she graduated from high school in 1957, the family set off on the road and stayed on it until her father’s death in 2000. Along the way, after he first heard King give a sermon in 1963, Pops told Mavis, “If Dr. King can preach it, we can sing it.” It was the impetus that would launch the family’s incredible career as a voice of the civil rights movement.

The Staple Singers signed to Stax Records in 1968, joining with members of Booker T. and the MGs, and hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975 with songs like the uplifting “I’ll Take You There,” “Respect Yourself,” “Heavy Makes You Happy,” and “Let’s Do It Again.” In 1969, Ms. Staples recorded her first solo album, and subsequently alternated between recording with her family and other artists. The Staple Singers were among the first black groups to ignore lines of color and record socially conscious songs written by such young white musicians as Mr. Dylan.

“I remember first hearing Bobby in the early ’60s on a television show,” she said. “Pops said, ‘Listen to those songs; listen to what he’s saying.’ Because Pops could relate to having to cross the street if a white man was coming in the other direction. He loved ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ so much that we recorded it and others of Bobby’s. We recorded anything that fit us, as long as it had a meaningful message. I’m still the same.”

Singing isn’t the only way Ms. Staples conveys her message. “I still don’t think black history is being taught enough by teachers or parents,” she said. “So whenever I can, I go into schools and tell the kids about what went on. How can you work for change unless you know what got changed through action? You have to know your history. That’s almost all I sing about. I sing to bring joy to people, to give them a reason to get up in the morning, and lift their spirits, and help them through trying times. God gave me this voice. I’m blessed to sing.”

Ms. Staples performs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on January 22 (30 Lafayette Ave., between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100).