SOUL TRUTH

Review ...Copeland blazes through TALKING TO STRANGERS with fervor and grace. -- Associated Press Extraordinary talent...Copeland is a vocalist who knows few stylistic limitations. Shes a true blues diva. -- Billboard Remarkable maturity...Shemekia captures the timelessness of the blues while spinning it forward. -- USA Today She roars with a sizzling hot intensity... -- The Boston Globe Young Shemekia is the most soul-shaking, big-voiced blues singer in years, attacking contemporary material like the early Etta James -- Village Voice Product Description The funkiest and deepest recordings yet from Shemekia. Produced by Stax legend Steve Cropper with a stellar band that includes Cropper, Rascal Felix Cavaliere, Allman Brother Chuck Leavell and the Muscle Shoals Horns. "One of the best singers in modern blues, if not all of pop music." - CHICAGO TRIBUNE From the Artist Shemekia came to her singing career slowly. "I never knew I wanted to sing until I got older," says Copeland. "But my dad knew ever since I was a baby. He just knew I was gonna be a singer." Her father, the late Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, recognized his daughter's talent early on. He always encouraged her to sing at home and even brought her on stage to sing at Harlem's famed Cotton Club when she was just eight. But it was when she was 15 and her father's health began to slow him down, she received the calling. "It was like a switch went off in my head," recalls Shemekia, "and I wanted to sing. It became a want and a need. I had to do it." One of the many lessons Shemekia learned growing up was the importance of singing from the heart. "Nobody wants to listen to someone singing just to earn some money," she says. "You've gotta sing because you need to do it." Indeed, Shemekia's soul-satisfying vocals and the lessons she learned from her father, matched with her inner need to sing, have brought her to audiences both young and old. "I still listen to Aretha Franklin, Katie Webster, Trudy Lynn, Etta James, Howard Tate, India Arie, Angelique Kidjo. But I never try to copy them. Theyve all inspired me and helped me become my own person." I want people who love hip-hop to know where it came from," she told Vibe magazine. "My music is rooted in blues, but its different. Im singing about my era. Im here and Im singing about now and not yesterday." And thats the truth, nothing but the soul truth. About the Artist When singing sensation Shemekia Copeland first appeared on the scene in 1997 with her debut CD, Turn The Heat Up, she quickly became, at 18 years old, a roots music superstar. Critics from around the country celebrated Shemekia an unstoppable new talent had arrived. Shemekia released two more CDs: 2000s Grammy-nominated Wicked and 2002s Talking To Strangers. In that short period of time, collected five W.C. Handy Blues Awards, a Grammy nomination and five Living Blues Awards. Rock legend Robert Plant called her "the next Tina Turner." Shemekia's passion for singing gives her music the timeless power and heart-pounding urgency of a very few greats who have come before her. The media has compared her to a young Etta James, Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin and Ruth Brown, but Shemekia -- born in 1979 and raised in the tough, urban streets of Harlem, New York -- has her own story to tell. Although schooled in Texas blues by her father, the legendary Johnny Clyde Copeland, Shemekia's music comes from deep within her soul and from the streets she grew up on, where a daily dose of city sounds surrounded her. With all this experience under her belt, 16-year-old Shemekia joined her father on his tours after he was diagnosed with a heart condition. Soon enough Shemekia was opening, and sometimes even stealing, her fathers shows. "She grabbed the crowd with her powerful voice," raved Blues Revue. Eventually, it became clear to Shemekia who was helping whom. "...He would go out and do gigs so I would get known. He went out of his way to get me that exposure." Shemekia stepped out of her fathers shadow in 1998 when Alligator released Turn The Heat Up, to massive popular & critical acclaim. Rave reviews ran everywhere from Billboard to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Boston Globe and many others. "She roars with a sizzling hot intensity," shouted The Boston Globe. She appeared in the motion picture Three To Tango, and her song "I Always Get My Man" was featured in another Hollywood film, Broken Hearts Club. She even guested on the television program Early Edition. In 2000 she returned with Wicked and the young singer was in great demand at radio, television and in the press. The opening song, "It's 2:00 A.M," won the W.C. Handy Blues Award for Song Of The Year, and the album was nominated for a Grammy Award. She appeared twice on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and also performed on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition and the CBS Saturday Early Show. In November 2001, s
ASIN: B0009ZD0EO
VSKU: DBV.B0009ZD0EO.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Shemekia Copeland
Binding: Audio cd
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