Happy Birthday Shemekia Copeland
Biography
” 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. She began to pursue a singing career in earnest at age 16, when her father’s health began to decline due to heart disease; he took Shemekia on tour with him 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, when she was just 19 years old (sadly, her father didn’t live to see the occasion).” Continue reading
Discography
1998 Turn the Heat Up! Alligator Records 2000 Wicked Alligator Records 2002 Talking to Strangers Alligator Records 2005 The Soul Truth Alligator Records 2009 Never Going Back Telarc Distribution 2012 33 1/3 Telarc
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