News

“Copeland’s voice is legit. Think Etta James, Koko Taylor, Ruth Brown, Mavis Staples,” writes Lauren Daley in South Coast Today, to announce Shemekia’s headlining show at the 14th Annual Narrows Festival of the Arts, in Fall River, Massachussets, on September 13.

“Her new album, Outskirts of Love, drops two days before her Fall River concert, so she’ll probably —hopefully— sing a few tracks off that, because it’s amazingly eclectic. It’s largely her interpretations of songs by artists including her father, the late Texas guitar legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, to ZZ Top, Solomon Burke, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jesse Winchester, Albert King and, two of my favorites, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.”

Read the whole story in South Coast Today.

“It’s too soon to tell whether Outskirts Of Love is the end of a trilogy or simply the next chapter in an ongoing saga,” writes Jim Allen on NPR’s First Listen.

All we know for sure is that it’s the third album to find Shemekia Copeland extending her definition of modern blues to include a sort of pan-Americana approach. […]  With crucial contributions from her manager/producer/songwriter John Hahn, Copeland has crafted an album that speaks to the times. A third of the songs are originals co-written by Hahn and guitarist Oliver Wood (of folk-rock band The Wood Brothers), and instead of trudging through blues tropes, Crossbone Beach, Cardboard Box and the title track speak to, for and about working people who sweat their way through modern-day America’s injustices, traps and hypocrisies […]

But Copeland’s genre-melding fluidity would be for naught if she didn’t possess such a powerhouse voice. She brings a perfect balance of authority and understatement to each song, whether it hails from Music City or the Mississippi Hill Country. As long as she’s got that going for her, who cares how the results are labeled?

Read the whole (great) review on NPR’s First Listen. And listen to the whole album!

Outskirts of Love is available at Alligator Records. 

Shemekia Copeland’s upcoming release on Alligator Records, Outskirts Of Love, receives a stellar 4-star review in MOJO Magazine (issue 263).

“It’s Copeland’s voice, part Koko Taylor, part Mavis Staples and capable of incredible expression, that makes this so super-special,” writes Lois Wilson.

“Shemekia Copeland isn’t calling her new Outskirts of Love a concept album. But it does have a thematic thread that runs through its 12 blues-and-R&B-infused songs, from the title track to the closing rendition of Jessie Mae Hemphill’s Lord, Help The Poor And Needy,” writes Gary Graff, who interviewed Shemekia for Billboard magazine.

“On this particular record I just think everybody in the (songs) is on the outskirts,” Shemekia told the award-winning music journalist. “Whether they’re homeless or being date-raped or can’t find the right partner in life or looking for justice in some sort of way and they can’t find it, it’s all about people on the outskirts.”

The magazine also premieres the title track which, according to Gary Graff, “reflects the tone” of the album.

Read the full article and listen to Outskirts of Love on Billboard.

“The album of the maturity for the ‘New Queen of the Blues’, because that is how the City of Chicago officially named her. 36 years old, 20 of which she spent singing the blues, and with such great talent! This Voice opened for the Rolling Stones. Then the Obamas invited her to perform at the White House. What else? Well, this eighth album! Never has Shemekia sounded better.”

This is how Juan Marquez Léon starts his review of Outskirts of Love in Blues Again, a French webzine. The author then describes the songs, before writing his conclusion: “I have to stop my review here. I am afraid my boss will fire me because I am too long. If this album is not chosen as Album of the year, I promise, I swear, I will go and review bananas and lettuces in hell!”

Read the whole review (in French) in Blues Again.

PS: Note the genre the magazine gave to the album: “Shemekia Copeland!”

NPR Music’s influential First Listen will host the premiere of Shemekia’s Outskirts Of Love, beginning Thursday, September 3 and running through the CD’s September 11 release date. Initial radio response has been stellar —the album was the #1 Most Added Triple A Record for the week of August 24 on the FMQB chart.

Mojo magazine says, “It is Copeland’s thrilling voice, part Koko Taylor, part Mavis Staples and capable of incredible expression, that makes Outskirts Of Love so super-special. Spectacular, stirring, sanctified and sassy… at the crossroads where funk meets blues rock. Her band, led by producer Oliver Wood, and featuring guests Billy F Gibbons, Robert Randolph, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Will Kimbrough, is faultless throughout.”

Read Alligator Records’ full press release.