First Listen: Shemekia Copeland, 'America's Child'
The blues artist expands her Americana sensibilities — and doubles down on her real-talking spirit — with Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Mary Gauthier and Rhiannon Giddens.
There's no telling whether or not Shemekia Copeland has ever read any theorizing about the social, cultural and theological significance of the blues from such thinkers as Angela Davis, James Cone and Kelly Brown Douglas, but she certainly brings a keen sense of purpose to her own Southern-accented, soul-steeped approach to modern blues.
Copeland is a second-generation performer, the daughter of the Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland, who persuaded her to open for him on the road late in his life. The hip-hop-conversant, Harlem-bred singer wasn't yet out of her teens when she, rejections of and .
