“With spine-tingling authority”

For a powerhouse female vocalist, no one fills the bill better than Shemekia Copeland. She has extended the legacy of her late father, blues great Johnny Copeland, while refusing to be boxed in by a purist vision of the blues. On Outskirts of Love (Alligator ****) she continues her fruitful collaboration with producer, guitarist, and songwriter Oliver Wood. She sings songs by her father and Albert King, and delves into country blues with Alvin Youngblood Hart. But she also takes on numbers by Jesse Winchester, John Fogerty, and ZZ Top (with Billy Gibbons on guitar), making them her own with spine-tingling authority.

By Nick Cristiano, in his “Roundup of recent roots recordings”, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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