Shemekia Copeland Interview: Break It Down to the Basics
A couple weeks ago, in speaking with Shemekia Copeland over the phone, I called her out. Though her new album Blame It On Eve, out Friday via Alligator Records, is her purported attempt to make an album that's a "break from the news" instead of "breaking news," she still sings about doomscroll-worthy topics. She admitted it right away. "I can't help myself," she said. "There was no way I couldn't talk about women's rights on this record." The album's very title refers to society's tendency to put the woman at fault, one that, of course, has biblical precedent. Copeland always has a way of selling you without hitting you over the head. "Hurricanes and tropical twisters / Always gettin' named after some sisters," she sings on the title track, "But the worst winds come from DC / Stealin' rights from you and me." Even alongside Jim Hoke's skronking saxophone and Luther Dickinson's screaming guitars, it's Copeland's wail that rises above.
Copeland calls herself "an idea person" who works with a stellar team of songwriters. Like most lyricists do, she jots down song ideas when they come into her head, and flushing the songs out with her team happens organically. "It's like getting a dress tailor made to fit you," she said. Blame It On Eve is her most balanced record yet. There are autobiographical songs (the blues stomp "Tough Mother"), paeans to interracial love ("Cadillac Blue"), gospel-rock jams ("Tell The Devil"), educational treatises ("Tee Tot Payne"), and even a couple covers, including her father Johnny's "Down on Bended Knee". Copeland turned to longtime collaborator Will Kimbrough to produce the record and play various instruments on it, and the core band of Kimbrough, bassist Lex Price, and drummer Pete Abbott treats Copeland's words with appropriate gravity. Kimbrough's mournful, echoing licks mirror Copeland's pained expressions on "Only Miss You All the Time". And the band's rock and roll strut gives levity to an otherwise serious song "Broken High Heels", where Copeland cleverly compares our collective attitude towards climate change to "Dancing in a graveyard in broken high heels."
Indeed, Copeland's songs that one might call "political" aren't really that--they're just about issues that affect everyday life. "Anything uncomfortable, people want to call it political," Copeland said. On "Is There Anybody Up There?" a duet with Alejandro Escovedo, the narrator starts to doubt that God is listening when looking at the ills of the world, like our broken immigration system, before realizing that his very doubts make him a sinner, too: "If they crucified poor Jesus, think what they'll do to me!" "Tee Tot Payne" is, of course, about the Black man who taught Hank Williams the blues. Copeland views the song as part of the larger conversation going on about Black influence on country music, and an important opportunity to engage with Black history. "Rhiannon Giddens wrote an amazing essay about the banjo and how it wasn't originally an instrument used amongst white bluegrass artists as much as it was used within Black culture," Copeland said. "They're trying to get rid of history, so for my last records, I try to put something educational in there."
As traditional as is the music Copeland makes, her view on making records and performing is pretty consistent with that of today's world. She's the first artist I've ever interviewed to admit that the sequencing of her albums isn't crucial. That is, she doesn't care whether listeners listen to the album's songs in order as much as they pay attention to what's in each song. "In all honesty, I don't believe sequencing is that important because people don't listen to records that way. I still do, but people don't listen to records in sequence. People pop it into their device and listen to it the way they want to," Copeland said. She then offered a caveat. "But it's important to me that they hear all the songs. They all fit on the record in some shape or form." That's Copeland, the idea person, thinking big picture, knowing that the collection of songs makes a whole, but each individual track tells a unique story. It's perhaps why her approach to playing live is so effective. Sequencing a set is important to Copeland, but it's less about planning and more about doing some of her own listening. "I don't really do setlists. I try to feel out the audience. I have some idea what we're gonna do, but I change it up," she said.
At the end of the day, Copeland has an innate sense for what makes songs tick. As she and her team write and practice, they start to think about who else could feature on the song, always without overloading it. It's how they ended up with Jerry Douglas contributing lap steel on "Cadillac Blue", Dashawn Hickman providing Sacred Steel guitar on "Tell the Devil", and Cara Fox playing cello on "Belle Sorciere", on whose chorus Copeland sings in French. Copeland's song-making prowess, though, is never more so evidenced by her version of Ron Miller's "Heaven Help Us All", recorded most famously by Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. The album closer, it features Kimbrough on organ and Lisa Oliver Gray and Odessa Settles providing impassioned backing vocals. Copeland had first heard the Charles version, which appeared on his 1972 album A Message from the People and featured Gladys Knight. "It [has] a lot of background vocals and horns. It was done in a very big, produced way," Copeland said. "I thought I wanted to break it down to the basics." She's not a minimalist, but when you listen to Copeland's albums or performances, or even talk to her on the phone, every word and moment is essential. She can't help it.
8/30: Peoria Blues & Heritage Music Festival 2024, Peoria, IL
8/31: Fishers Blues Festival, Fishers, IN
9/1: Rhythm & Roots 2024, Charlestown, RI
9/5: Bell's Brewery, Kalamazoo, MI
9/6: The Ark, Ann Arbor, MI
9/7: Wheatland Music Festival, Remus, MI
9/17: Americanafest Showcase at 3rd & Lindsley, Nashville, TN
9/20: Fanatics Pub, Lima, NY, United States
9/21: Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
9/22: Center for the Arts of Homer, Homer, NY
9/27: Rochester Opera House, Rochester, NH
9/28: Spire Center for Performing Arts, Plymouth, MA
10/10: One Longfellow Square, Portland, ME
10/12: StageOne at FTC, Fairfield, CT
10/13: Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA
10/17: Daryl's House, Pawling, NY
10/18: Elkton Music Hall, Elkton, MD
10/19: Rams Head On Stage, Annapolis, MD
10/20: The Tin Pan, Richmond, VA
11/14: Music Box Supper Club, Cleveland, OH
11/15: The Acorn, Three Oaks, MI
11/16: City Winery Chicago, Chicago, IL
11/17: City Winery St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
11/22: Lizzie Rose Music Room, Tuckerton, NJ
11/23: Barre Opera House, Barre, VT
11/24: City Winery Boston, Boston, MA
11/30: SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco, CA
12/6: Sam's Burger Joint, San Antonio, TX
12/7: The Kessler Theater, Dallas, TX
12/8: Houston Blues Society Holiday Bash at Rockefeller's, Houston, TX
1/19: One Longfellow Square, Portland, ME
2/7: Zellerbach Theatre at The Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA
2/16: Vero Beach Blues Festival, Vero Beach, FL
2/22: Soka Performing Arts Center, Aliso Viejo, CA
2/23: Poway Center for the Performing Arts, Poway, CA
4/4: Lied Center of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
4/7: McCain Auditorium, Manhattan, KS
4/12: Bitterroot Performing Arts Council, Hamilton, MT
