A full interview in Forbes

Photo Mike White

Shemekia Copeland is an award-winning R&B/Americana singer considered one of the great blues voices of our time. Born in Harlem, New York City and daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland, young Shemekia first performed at the Cotton Club when she was 9. At 16, her father took her on tour as his opening act, establishing her name on the blues circuit.

In 1998, she landed a recording contract with Alligator Records, and released her first album, Turn the Heat Up!  Other albums followed: Wicked, Talking to Strangers, and The Soul Truth. At the 2011 Chicago Blues Festival, she was presented with Koko Taylor’s crown and officially honored as the new ‘Queen of the Blues.’ Her album, Outskirts of Love peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums, and her latest eighth album, America’s Child on Alligator Records has just been released. She has earned multiple Blues Music and Living Blues Awards, Best Blues Artist Of The Year and a Grammy nomination.

Margie Goldsmith “caught up with the busy performer in Buffalo where she was on tour.” She asked Shemekia about her childhood and her teenage years, her albums, her performance at the White House, her collaborations with Dr. John, John Prine, and Steve Cropper, about her band, her son, and her new album, America’s Child, in which she sings “about chaos and uncertainty.” “And yet, you still find joy all around you,” adds Margie Goldsmith, before asking: “So are you optimistic about America?” Read the full interview in Forbes.