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Artist
Shemekia Copeland
12+ albums
bluesfemale vocalistssoulgospelfemale blues vocalist
about
Shemekia Copeland (b Harlem, New York City, 10 April 1979) is an American blues singer. The daughter of blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland, she began to pursue a singing career in earnest at age 16, when her father's health began to decline; he took Shemekia on tour as his opening act, which helped establish her name on the blues circuit. She landed a record deal with Alligator, which issued her debut album "Turn the Heat Up!" in 1998. The record was met with enthusiastic reviews, and she toured the blues festival circuit in America and Europe. Her second album, "Wicked", was released in 2000 and featured a duet with one of her heroes, early R&B diva Ruth Brown. It earned her three W.C. Handy Blues Awards. The follow-up record, "Talking to Strangers", was produced by Dr. John, and in 2005 she released "The Soul Truth", produced by Steve Cropper. See also: Official Website Artist Biography by Steve Huey Turn the Heat Up! The daughter of renowned Texas blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, Shemekia Copeland began making a splash in her own right before she was even out of her teens. Projecting a maturity beyond her years, Copeland fashioned herself as a powerful, soul-inflected shouter in the tradition of Koko Taylor and Etta James, yet also proved capable of a subtler range of emotions. Copeland was born in Harlem in 1979 and her father encouraged her to sing right from the beginning, even bringing her up on-stage at the Cotton Club when she was just eight years old.
