Sun 2/15 @ 7:30PM
Shemekia Copeland released her first album Turn Up the Heat! in 1998 when she was still a teenager. It came out on the world’s premier blues label Alligator and showed an astonishing grasp of this traditional genre for a 19-year-old from Harlem.
Or maybe not so astonishing when you learned about her background. Her father was noted Texas blues guitarist/vocalist Johnny Copeland, and he began showcasing her at his concerts when she was in her mid-teens. He died in 1997 about a month after her high school graduation. It was like a torch was passed and she went out to do what she was born to do.
She’s now 35 and she’s added even more depth and range to her always mature-sounding vocals. Her latest album 33 1/3, released in 2013, includes a guitar solo from one of her father’s contemporaries, Buddy Guy and one of her father’s songs “One More Time.” She’s now one of blues’ most respected performers in demand for festivals around the world.
She’ll be performing in Cleveland at the Music Box Supper Club. Cleveland’s Blues Chronicles open.
Tickets are $25 in advance, $28 at the door.
musicboxcle.com/shemekia-copeland/