“Shemekia spins clear-voiced tales of the down and out”

Today, Copeland — who plays four nights next week at Jazz Alley — sounds like she wants to tell you a story. […]

Throughout this year’s Grammy-nominated “Outskirts of Love,” Copeland spins clear-voiced tales of the down and out. […]

Although Copeland is not a songwriter, she has veto power over everything Hahn and Wood present to her. She has known Hahn for almost 30 years, when he was managing her father, the late Texas blues singer Johnny “Clyde” Copeland.

“He just knows me really well — a father to me in so many ways,” she says of Hahn. “He’s very picky about (songs) he gives me. I’m very picky about what I want performed. So if I can’t jump inside of it and really become it and present it, I wouldn’t do it.”

By Steve Knopper, in “Shemekia Copeland wants to tell you a story at Jazz Alley,” published by The Seattle Times, before her performances at Jazz Alley, in Seattle, between January 14th and 17th.

Read the full story on The Seattle Times.