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Blues Pick, 1/13-1/19

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Blues Picks, 1/13-19


By David Whiteis

Shemekia Copeland
Friday and Saturday, Jan. 17 and 18, 8:00 p.m.
EvanstonSPACE

Shemekia Copeland’s prodigious vocal abilities have never been in question, but for a long time it seemed doubtful whether she’d ever progress beyond being a hard-belting blues “mama,” capable of rattling windows at a hundred paces but unable or unwilling to tone things down and let the music (and the lyrics) breathe. Over the last few years, though, she has grown considerably—she’s now a versatile and engaging roots-music stylist, having finally learned to temper her high-intensity vocal delivery, which at one time seemed almost unrelenting, with enough interludes of tenderness, and enough timbral and dynamic shifts, to allow her entire musical personality to shine through.

In 2012, Copeland released 33 1/3, her second outing on the Telarc label, and it’s probably her most fully realized yet. Her material has expanded well beyond the rock/blues fare she was largely limited to during her tenure at Alligator (a pair of earnest but somewhat labored soul and R&B experiments, produced by Steve Cropper and Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack, notwithstanding), and she’s shown herself capable of embracing all of it with unselfconscious gusto. Whether denouncing social inequality in the hard-pounding rocker Lemon Pie; fleeing an abusive lover in the harrowing, noirish “Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo”; calling out a fire-and-brimstone hypocrite on Somebody Else’s Jesus, invoking the hard-edged humor of her late father, Texas blues legend Johnny Copeland, in the ironically uptempo death threat “One More Time”; or crooning babygirl-with-brio endearments on Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” Copeland reveals herself to be in command of an emotional spectrum that encompasses erotic heat, righteous outrage, vulnerability, and even despair, without ever sacrificing the womanly confidence and sassy assertiveness that have long been her trademark.


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