Shemekia Copeland advances the blues-vocal legacy of Etta James and Koko Taylor at this weekend’s Blues, Brews & BBQ

The New Times Interview
By J.T. Hall

On the latest Memorial Day weekend possible, WTKW-FM 99.5’s Blues, Brews & BBQ returns to Chevrolet Court at the New York State Fairgrounds. Doors open at 1 p.m. for the Sunday, May 30, blowout of, well, blues music, beer and barbecue. 

Music starts at 2 p.m. with the Chris Terra Band, and continues at 3:10 p.m. when Luther “Guitar Jr.” Johnson takes the stage. Gary Hoey plays at 4:30 p.m., with Shemekia Copeland performing at 6 p.m., before headliner Kenny Wayne Shepherd goes on at 7:45 p.m. All start times are approximate. 

Advance sale tickets cost $20 and are on sale at local Napa Auto Parts stores and Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com, 472-0700). Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the show, and folding chairs are welcome.

Since she began her recording career at age 19, Copeland has become a proven and popular staple on the blues circuit, a powerful and dynamic singer full of sass and strut, wise beyond her 30 years. The daughter of the late blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, the Harlem native continues the vocal traditions established by Koko Taylor, Etta James and Ruth Brown. 

She has garnered a long trail of critical acclaim, including a Grammy nomination, and three W.C. Handy Awards for the 2000 CD Wicked (Alligator), selections by Downbeat magazine for Rising Star-Blues Artist (2005 and 2009) and Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year (2002), and numerous other nominations. 

Her current CD, Never Going Back (Telarc), takes a more progressive direction, and features the Wood brothers (bassist Chris and guitarist Oliver) and organist John Medeski and a diverse repertoire including songs by her father and Joni Mitchell.

Q. What are you bringing in your band and what will you play?

A: I always have my regular touring band with me: drums, bass, keyboard and two guitar players. I’ll be doing songs from my new record and my previous records. I never know from show to show what songs I’m going to do, I don’t have a set list. I like to feel out the audience and see what feels right.

Q. What kind of influences shaped your interest in music while you were growing up?

A: I grew up around music. My father was a great blues musician. He played music around the house, and I sang along when I was 3 years old. My mom loved soul music and gospel. I grew up in Harlem in the hip-hop era. Later on I fell in love with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and The Who. I love everyone from Mahalia Jackson to Otis Redding to Koko Taylor to Hank Williams. It’s a big range.

Q: Your father was an accomplished musician. Did you begin performing with him?

A: Absolutely. When I was 8 or 9 years old I would get up and sing a song with my dad. That’s how I got started. When I got older it graduated to me doing the whole first show. I was his opening act. It was some of the best times of my life, being able to spend that with my father. He was always very present in my life. When I was 15 or 16 me and my mom would go out on the road with him.

Q: Tell me about your admiration for blues singer Ruth Brown.

A: I just absolutely loved her. She was a phenomenal artist, one of the best ever. She was also an amazing person. I got a chance to know her and be a friend; that’s a special thing for me. I also was lucky enough to have a personal relationship with Koko Taylor. They were both friends of my dad, but I didn’t meet them until he passed away and I was out on my own.

Q: What does it take to be an effective rhythm’n’blues singer like Ruth Brown or Koko Taylor?

A: It’s all about being soulful. You have to feel it. You have to jump inside a song and become that song so you can perform it well. You have to take the audience through a range of emotions. If you’re good at that then you’re one of the best actors in the world. It was a big challenge when I was younger but now it’s a little easier for me. As you grow you become more confident in yourself, you don’t beat yourself up about the things you don’t have. But I think a good artist is always nervous, always concerned about what the show sounds like.

Q: How is your new CD, Never Going Back, different from your previous CDs?

A: It’s completely different. It’s about being confident and growth and saying what you want to say. In my previous albums I didn’t want to turn people off with my opinions, but something changed in me. This album is not so much about relationships, it’s more about how I feel about things, politics, religion and other issues. 

The song “Never Going Back to Memphis” is really not about a man stranding me in Memphis. When I first started listening to blues music I asked my dad why men talked about killing their wives and girlfriends in songs, but they were talking about killing their plantation owners but couldn’t say that in songs. So a lot of the songs (on Never Going Back) are about different things that you don’t come right out and say. The song “Born a Penny” is about being happy about who you are, and “Circumstances,” which my dad wrote, is about what’s going on and perfect for what’s going on in the economy today.

Q: How did you come to choose the Joni Mitchell song “Black Crow”?

A: I’ve always loved Joni Mitchell. I felt like she wrote the song for me; it was my life in a nutshell. It touched me, it was about my life.

Q: Tell me about your songwriting.

A: I write all the time, but I think that there are much better songwriters out there than I am. I think people put songs on their records just because they write them, and they don’t really care if the song is good or bad, and that’s one of the reasons why the record business is going into the crapper. I’d much rather have a song that somebody else wrote that’s great than a song that’s just OK that I wrote.

Q: You recently performed in Iraq. What was that like?

A: I was in Iraq and Kuwait. It was one of the best experiences of my life. A lot of those guys are young and they had never seen anything like me before. It was a whole lot of fun.