Shemekia Copeland
Shemekia Copeland In spite of her young age, Shemekia Copeland is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the blues. While still in her 20s, she has opened for the Rolling Stones, headlined at the Chicago Blues Festival, scored critics choice awards on both sides of the Atlantic, and shared the stage with such luminaries as Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Taj Mahal and John Mayer. Copeland’s passion for singing, matched with her huge, blast- furnace voice, gives her music a timeless power and a heart- pounding urgency. Born in Harlem in 1979, Copeland came to her singing career slowly. Her father, the late Texas blues guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, recognized his daughter’s talent early on and brought her on stage to sing at Harlem’s famed Cotton Club when she was eight. Shemekia stepped out of her father’s shadow in 1998 with her debut recording, Turn the Heat Up!, and soon after appeared in the movie Three To Tango. Her song “I Always Get My Man” was featured in the film Broken Hearts Club, and her second album, Wicked, scored three Handy Awards and a Grammy nomination. She joined Telarc International this past February for her latest recording, Never Going Back. This new chapter in Copeland’s story represents a crossroads on her ongoing artistic journey. While she will always remain loyal to her blues roots, Never Going Back takes a more forward view of the blues, and in so doing points her music and her career in a new direction Michael Feinstein Michael Feinstein, one of the premiere interpreters of American popular song, has been a household name since the success of his 1988 one-man Broadway show, Isn’t It Romantic.
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