Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 2

But though Copeland has become more activist in her songs, she empha- sizes that a Shemekia Copeland concert is nothing but “a good ‘ol time,” and the Ravinia triple bill of her, Blues Traveler, and Buddy Guy will be “epic.” T o quote the title of a song on America’s Child, Copeland is not like everybody else. While steeped in the blues, she has expanded her musical horizons in recent years to incorporate roots music influences. She likes to bend the blues, she says, but not break them. “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” is a song written by Ray Davies of The Kinks and recorded by the group in 1966. “The lyr- ics are true to what I’m doing,” she says. “To me, it’s like my anthem.” Raised in Harlem, Copeland was born to the breed. Her father was Texas blues icon Johnny Copeland, yet she had a wide variety of musical influences. “Living with an older brother,” she says, “we listened to whatever popular radio there was, but mainly I was a record girl. My father always brought records home. My mom also loved music. She was the oldest of nine kids, and all of her sib- lings lived with us at one point, so I got a chance to listen to all of their music. There was country, southern soul, and a lot of gospel.” Johnny recognized something in his daughter and groomed her from child- hood to sing the blues. Before she was 10, he brought her onstage with him to sing at the famed Cotton Club. Before she was 13, she made her solo stage debut there. As a teen, she joined him on the road as his opening act. It was not nepo- tism; she had the goods. But as a fledgling performer, she initially found herself intimidated by such flamboyant artists as the Chicago blues singer Big Time Sarah. “She was a great entertain- er and I loved watching her,” Copeland says, “but I remember saying to my dad, ‘I will never be comfortable doing that.’ He told me, ‘That’s okay, not all singers do that.’ I started going out and seeing other artists like Koko Taylor, who I had been listening to forever. They had their own style and I thought, ‘Okay, I can do this.’ “I miss artists like him,” Copeland says of her father. “You can’t go back, but boy those were the good old days, when Johnny Copeland, Luther Allison, and Albert Collins competed against each other. They just made each other better.” As a song interpret- er, Copeland feels a special responsibil- ity performing her father’s songs. He died in 1977 at the age of 60, of complications from surgery related to a previous heart trans- plant—he was posthu- mously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. In recent years, his “Ghetto Child” has been a concert highlight. 20 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | MAY 31, 2019 – JUNE 16, 2019