Post Description

Blues, Americana.

Gritty and Soulful Urban Blues To Make Your Pulse Race

We kinda love Shemekia Copeland here at RMHQ and her albums regularly find their way onto the office stereo when we need a rest from trying to think up new ways to describe songs; and this new album will certainly join that list and possibly even usurp a couple too.

Shemekia has always added a fiery song or two on her albums, which is no real surprise for a black woman in 21st Century America, but here (with the odd exception) she comes out of the traps kicking, spitting and snarling the offspring of a one night stand between Curtis Mayfield and Sharron Jones!
That first song, Blame It On Eve is a dandy from start to finish as Shemekia lists all of the things women get blamed for metaphorically, but this ‘Sista isn’t going to take it!’ as she sings with clenched fists and teeth too.
This followed by a slower but still as angry and angsty Tough Mother, which is something of a Bluesy update on Elvis’s In The Ghetto but with more fire and brimstone in the words and arrangement.
Only two songs in and my pulse was racing the first time I played this album, thankfully the pace slows somewhat on the third track, the heartbreaking Only Miss You All The Time which will be interpreted differently by every listener as it could be about a lost lover or really someone close who’s passed.

In many ways this is a clever album by Shemekia and producer/guitarist Will Kimbrough as between them they cover, Blues, Soul and the rockier end of both at times yet the whole album is totally cohesive, which is quite the achievement.
As a for-instance they juxtapose Mrs. Magpie’s theme tune, the cheeky Wine O’Clock, with the rocktastic Is There Anyone Up There? (In Heaven) where she questions woman’s place in the world (again) then follows that with the beautiful love song, Cadillac Blue where she crosses the race barrier by falling in love with a man with Cadillac Blue eyes against all her friends ministrations.

I can’t remember if she’s recorded her father Johnny Copeland’s songs before; but she must have but I doubt any were as cool and bouncy as this twisted and blistering Gospel version of Down On Bended Knee, which will shake you to the core.

There’s not a lot I can tell you about Tell The Devil To Go To Hell! that you will probably believe, but it sounds like Shemekia is channeling her inner Janis and it features some amazing guitar licks throughout.
With so many great and disparate songs to choose from it’s not been easy to select a single Favourite Track; but while thinking about it earlier today I’m going for one of Tee Tot Payne, someone I’ve never heard of but was the black man who taught the young Hank Williams how to play the Blues!

Then there’s the dark and dangerous Belle Sorcierre; one of those songs that you wonder if it’s based on a true story or at least a story passed down from mother to daughter through the generations and the chorus sung in French is actually spine tingling.

The last of this fabulous trio is the first that I thought of while thinking about ‘Favourites’ and that is another Blues Rocker of the Deluxe variety called Broken High Heals which is primarily about climate change told through the metaphor of (Dancing In A Graveyard in) Broken High Heals in a care free manner while our political leaders ignore the evidence that the world is going to Hell in a handcart regardless of the scientists are telling them that ‘things are getting ugly’ … and I’m betting this becomes a fan favourite at gigs for years to come.

After all of that Shemekia neatly closes the album with the glorious and tragically beautiful Heaven Help Us All … ain’t that the truth brethren?

As well as producer/guitarist Will Kimbrough there are a whole bunch of legendary guests here including Americana superstar Alejandro Escovedo, guitarists Luther Dickinson and Charlie Hunter, lap steel master Jerry Douglas, and young sacred steel wizard DaShawn Hickman which I think highlights the place Shemekia Copeland now has in the industry.

Tracks:
1. Blame It On Eve 4:32 
2. Tough Mother 4:15 
3. Only Miss You All The Time 4:10 
4. Broken High Heels 3:48 
5. Wine O'Clock 4:03 
6. Is There Anybody Up There? 3:44 
7. Cadillac Blue 3:40 
8. Belle Sorciere 4:32 
9. Tell The Devil 3:24 
10.Tee Tot Payne 3:08 
11.Down On Bended Knee 4:36 
12.Heaven Help Us All 4:02 

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mA7CZthNEaZHsaF7sNk1KVi8XNmqZRPSo