Shemekia Copeland brings rich blues heritage to Avila Beach
Shemekia Copeland was homeschooled in music education — not only by her father, established blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, but also by her father’s peers, who included the late B.B. King.
“One of the things I remember most about B.B. was how much he wanted to educate you about other people’s music,” said Shemekia Copeland, who performs at this year’s Avila Blues Blues Festival along with Bonnie Raitt and JJ Grey and Mofro. “Every time I got on his bus, he’d have music set up, and he’d always play me songs (by) other people … really obscure artists that nobody had ever heard of, only him.”
King, who died last week at age 89, liked to share his insights about the blues, Copeland said.
“It took a long time to get over the fact that I was sitting there, hanging out with B.B. King,” said Copeland, who spoke to The Tribune by telephone a few days before King died. “But then after that, when I became more comfortable, you try to take in everything that he’s teaching you. You try to take it all in.”
Copeland, 36, has been taking it in since she was a child.
When the Harlem native was 8, her father brought her onstage at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. As a teenager, she began singing on weekends while working the counter at a dry cleaner.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be (at) the dry cleaner forever,” said Copeland, who now lives in Chicago. “That was the only way you could stand to be in it – knowing it was temporary.”
When her father became ill with heart problems, he intensified her music education, inviting her to tour with him. While Copeland helped her ailing father shoulder the load on stage, he offered her even greater assistance, providing much-needed exposure and contacts.
“What he was doing for me was special, bringing me out and giving me this experience and teaching me how to be an artist and how to be out on the road,” Copeland said. “I knew all along that it was a special gift.”
The two didn’t work together long, though. After a failed heart transplant, Johnny Copeland died in 1997, at age 60.
Copeland released her debut album, “Turn the Heat Up!,” in 1998, when she was just 19. For that album, she covered the song “Ghetto Child,” which as written by her father.
“I’ve been performing that song for 25 years,” Copeland said. “It was relevant when my father wrote it 50 years ago, and it’s relevant now.”
Copeland’s music combines elements of rock, soul and funk, and her songs address social and political issues. But she has never strayed from her blues pedigree.
Two of her albums, 2000’s “Wicked” and 2012’s “33 1/3,” were nominated for blues-related Grammy Awards.
After Taylor died in 2009, the city of Chicago officially proclaimed Copeland the new “Queen of the Blues” — with the blessing of Taylor’s daughter, Cookie.
“They presented me with Koko’s crown first,” Copeland said. “And then later on I got the official proclamation.”
Despite that title – and despite opening for the Rolling Stones and sharing a stage with legends such as Eric Clapton – Copeland said it’s still tough for a blues act to get recognition without a guitar.
“In the ’20s, female singers were the most popular thing in blues,” she said. “When the electric guitar came into place, then it became all about the guitar player.”
Still, Copeland never had plans to follow her father’s footsteps that way.
“(There are) too many guitar players in the world,” she said. “I don’t think we need another.”
Luckily, she has connections. Her next album, due out in September, will feature the guitar work of Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and pedal steel extraordinaire Robert Randolph. And her husband, Orlando Wright, plays bass for guitar legend Buddy Guy.
While Copeland has recorded with Guy, she and Wright travel separately with their respective bands.
“He’s happy doing what he’s doing, and I’m happy doing what I’m doing,” she said.
Avila Beach Blues Festival
2 p.m. Sunday, doors open at noon
Avila Beach Golf Resort, 6464 Ana Bay Road, Avila Beach
$55 to $110
924-1142 or www.otterproductionsinc.com
This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Shemekia Copeland brings rich blues heritage to Avila Beach."