Shemekia Copeland

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Shemekia Copeland (b Harlem, New York City, 10 April 1979) is an American blues singer.

The daughter of blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland, she began to pursue a singing career in earnest at age 16, when her father's health began to decline; he took Shemekia on tour as his opening act, which helped establish her name on the blues circuit. Copeland graduated in 1997 from Teaneck High School in Teaneck, New Jersey.^[1]

She landed a record deal with Alligator, which issued her debut album "Turn the Heat Up!" in 1998. The record was met with enthusiastic reviews^{[citation needed]}, and she toured the blues festival circuit in America and Europe. Her second album, "Wicked", was released in 2000 and featured a duet with one of her heroes, early R&B diva Ruth Brown. It earned her three W.C. Handy Awards.

The follow-up record, "Talking to Strangers", was produced by Dr. John, and in 2005 she released "The Soul Truth", produced by Steve Cropper.

[edit] References

^ Beckerman, Jim. "WHERE STARS ARE BORN", The Record (Bergen County), August 19, 2000. Accessed July 3, 2007. "When Shanell Jones graduated from Teaneck High School in June, she already had a deal with Def Jam, a major recording label. But as former Motown Records artist Taral Hicks (Teaneck, Class of 1994) and Alligator recording artist Shemekia Copeland (Teaneck, Class of 1997) could tell her, that's no big deal in this neck of the woods."