SHEMEKIA COPELAND : Turn it up (1998)

Ce n’est pas parce qu’elle est la fille du regretté Johnny Copeland, talentueux musicien texan, que Shemekia est aujourd’hui saluée comme l’une des valeurs sûres de l’art vocal noir.
Avec Turn the heat up, son premier album chez Alligator Records en 1998, les récompenses et les louanges de ses aînés n'ont cessés de pleuvoir; le grand Buddy Guy, lui-même, n’a pu résister au charme de cette nouvelle voix blues en l’invitant sur scène, lors de sa dernière tournée. Respectueuse de la tradition ancestrale, on la compare volontiers à Koko Taylor ou Aretha Franklin.
L'enchainement des morceaux "your mama's talking", "has anybody seen my man" et "married to the blues" est à tomber par terre, à sauter de bonheur puis à chialer.
Shemekia qui avait 19 ans (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) à l'enregistrement de cet album est promise à un immense avenir. C'est d'ores et déjà une des plus grandes.
Turn the heat up est un des grands albums de 1998 et de la dernière décennie.

Shemekia Copeland has taken the blues world by storm this past year -- amazing audiences with her powerful voice and poised performance. "I never knew I wanted to sing until I got older," says the twenty-year-old blues vocalist (born April 10, 1979). "But my dad knew ever since I was a baby. He just knew I was gonna be a singer." Her dad, the late Texas blues guitar legend, Johnny Clyde Copeland, recognized his daughter's talent early on. He always encouraged her to sing at home and when she was just eight, brought her on stage to sing at Harlem's famed Cotton Club. At that time Shemekia's desire to "just be a kid," outweighed her desire to sing. But when she was 15, and her father's health began to slow him down, she received the calling. "It was like a switch went off in my head," recalls Shemekia, "I had to do it." Shemekia's passion for singing, matched with her huge, blast-furnace voice and impeccable timing, give her music the timeless power and foot-stomping urgency of some of the female blues greats who have come before her.
(Blues on Stage)