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57ShemekiaCopelandRising Star Blues Artist/GroupBy Michael JacksonDespite her notoriety as the archetypal “blues belter,” ShemekiaCopeland prefers the handle “Miss Meek.” Her offstagedemeanour is disarmingly unassuming, the more remarkablegiven her blue-chip lineage as the daughter of Grammy-winning guitarslinger Johnny “Texas Twister” Copeland.Turning 30 this year, Copeland has made a career shift after fulfillingher four-album contract with Chicago’s Alligator Records, with whom shewaxed her bruisingly brilliant debut Turn The Heat Up at age 19.Copeland’s manager, John Hahn, struck a deal with Telarc to releasethis year’s Never Going Back, for which he brought in producer OliverWood and rootsy jazz heavies Marc Ribot, John Medeski and ChrisWood.The dozen tracks on Never Going Back cut a wide swath, embracingtopical social criticism, a Percy Mayfield dialogue about suicide, theobligatory selection from her father’s canon and a surprising JoniMitchell cover.Anxious to evolve personally and also advance the blues genre,Copeland, modest yet very direct, is outspoken about contemporary societyand its ills, yet full of admiration for her peers and elders.Never Going Back is taken from the title of the noirish Hahn/Woodnarrative “Never Going Back To Memphis,” and though the abbreviationhints at her bold new direction, blues fans needn’t feel relegated. As Woodsaid, “Shemekia wanted to express herself differently than in the past, sowe chose an eclectic bag of tunes. The songs were chosen for their messageof empowerment, with a few quirky exceptions.” Wood said theintent was to take Copeland out of her blues comfort zone—they even rana Hank Williams tune that didn’t make it on the CD—but Wood reminds,“Shemekia gives the blues to anything she sings.”So, does Never Going Back herald the end of Copeland’s days (tonamecheck her previous Alligator releases) of being “wicked” and “talkingto strangers”?“No!” she laughed during an interview at Buddy Guy’s Legends inChicago. “Those records are a part of me. I had a good marriage withAlligator, it was just time to move forward.” In preparing for the newrecord, “We tried to pick songs that were a little deeper than the typicalblues themes of partying and broken relationships,” she said.The opener, “Sounds Like The Devil,” deals unequivocally with politicaland religious hypocrisy. “I’ve always been critical of the world, I justrefused to talk about it,” Shemekia said. “I thought politics and religionwere things nobody wanted to hear about musically. Why the hell would Iforce them to listen to that when they are on their off day, out Friday nighthaving a drink? But with all the stuff going on right now, it was impossiblenot to deal with it.”Despite her love of gospel and her own moral code, Copeland didn’twant to sound preachy, since the duplicity of those who labor their ethicalpoint but don’t live it is at the root of her misgivings. “Guys who claimthey live by the Bible but have bastard children, that is what ‘Big BrandNew Religion’ is all about on my album,” she said.Copeland grew up in what she contends was one of the roughest neighborhoodsin Harlem; crack dealing was rife and she attended more juvenilefunerals than she cares to remember. When she sings her father’sBluesArtist/Group,Rising Star64 ShemekiaCopeland36 Derek Trucks21 SusanTedeschi20 Marcia Ball20 Otis Taylor19 CarolinaChocolateDrops17 Eric Bibb17 John Németh15 CedricBurnside15 JanivaMagness14 LuckyPeterson13 Keb’ Mo’“Ghetto Child,” she ain’t faking.“Born a Penny” underscores her lack of pretension. “I was born apenny, and I don’t wanna be no dime,” she insists. “I know what I am, andyou can’t make me be what I don’t want to be.”Recent shifts in Copeland’s life have adjusted her outlook. She movedto Chicago a couple years back to be closer to bassist Orlando Wright,who plays with Buddy Guy and is now her fiancé. How does it feel beingin the town that gave rise to Barack Obama?“The world is definitely changing, although unfortunately we find it issomewhat the same, as much as it’s changed,” she said.The night Obama was elected, Copeland was performing in a mess hallin Iraq as part of a Bluesapalooza tour. “It’s easy to sit in your quiet, safehouse, not in a warzone, and talk crap about what goes on over there,” shesaid. “But those young men risking their lives for our country, all theywant is a piece of home, a hug and a kiss. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back toIraq for those guys.” Some of this philanthropy comes across in “BrokenWorld,” a heartfelt track that Copeland described as “equal parts hope andfrustration.”Discussing her primary influences, two male soul singers stand out:Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. The blowtorch power of Tina Turner isalso detectable in her early work. “Tina is such an awesome entertainer,and that aspect is important to me,” Copeland said. Gladys Knight, MavisStaples and the late Koko Taylor are other women she admires. “WithKoko every note comes from her toes up to her head. Mavis has the abilityto just moan and give you goose pimples.”But what of her less obvious interest in Joni Mitchell? Wood encouragedCopeland to make the plunge with “Black Crow” (from Mitchell’s1976 folk/rock/jazz album Hejira). Mitchell wrote the song when travelingalone across America, and Copeland’s traversing of the globe from anearly age has made her similarly wistful.“I was hesitant at first doing one of Joni’s songs, but after listening tothe lyrics I realized she had written it for me,” she said. “I mean, ‘I tooka ferry to the highway/Then I drove to a pontoon plane/I took a plane toa taxi/And a taxi to a train.’ The other day I had finished a show and mymother called and asked, ‘What are you going to do now?’ I replied,‘I’ve got to take a train to the bus and the bus to my car and then I haveto drive home.’”“‘Well,’ she said, ‘then I guess you are a black crow.’”DBMICHAEL JACKSON38 DOWNBEAT August 2009