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Shemekia Copeland

Crowned Queen of The Blues
 

 By Don Wilcock

When I spoke with to Shemekia Copeland two days after shed been crowned Queen of the Blues before more than one hundred thousand cheering fans at the Chicago Blues Festival on June 12, 2011, she still couldn’t even say the word “Queen.” The best she can muster is “being called that.”

In the last hundred years several artists have been called Queen of the Blues from Bessie Smith and Dinah Washington to Memphis Minnie  and Koko Taylor, but never has the weighty title been so officially sanctioned by entities like the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. And never has there been such an emotional outpouring and spontaneous approval of an idea that apparently had its genesis in the mind of the late Queen Koko Taylor’s daughter Cookie Taylor Threatt, who decided she wanted to present her mom’s tiara to Shemekia who had been very close to Koko and who honors Taylor every night in performance.

The blues has always been a family, and nowhere is this more poignantly obvious than in the remarks of so many people who gathered on the Petrillo Band Shell stage for Copeland’s crowning, including Marie Dixon, widow of Willie; Jimmy Reed’s daughter Rose; manger John Hahn; and, Alligator Records CEO Bruce Iglauer. For John Hahn’s comments see this week’s Blues Bytes section.

Bruce Iglauer who released all of Koko Taylor’s records, and three of Shemekia’s four releases had this to say: “It was a very emotional moment for me. It was a proud moment to think that I had – you know, Koko always said, ‘Bless the bridge that carried you across,’ and by that she meant that I was the bridge that carried her across, that brought her from her talent to her fans and her potential fans, and I also to some extent was that for Shemekia. So it was really a proud moment for me to be there. I felt that it was very appropriate that Shemekia be honored in this way.

“Clearly, of her generation, she is the blues artist, if we use a very broad definition of blues, who has become the most visible, who had had the most distinguished recording and performance career so far. That’s not to take away of course from anybody else who is also talented and has paid dues. The problem sometimes with these awards or this naming is by virtue of naming one person is that you’re kind of putting down somebody else which is not what I’m trying to do right now.

“Koko adored Shemekia, and she did talk about Shemekia as being a crucial person in carrying on the blues tradition. Koko didn’t say to me, “She’s the new Queen of the Blues” or “She’s my successor,” but she certainly treated Shemekia that way. Koko was very gracious in welcoming people into her home and into her circle, and her friends and all of the female singers around Chicago and elsewhere – Nellie Travis is one, Diunna Greenleaf another. You know Koko invited Diunna to some up and stay at her home for a while.

“Koko, I think as she got older moved into that elder stateswoman role where she was eager to pass her knowledge and her – this is a funny word to use, but I’ll use it anyway – her spirit to younger female artists whom she knew would be carrying on after she was gone.

“From the first time I ever heard her, Shemekia was a remarkably mature singer and by that I mean she could convey a depth, great depth of emotion, that she could convey songs with a great deal of nuance and subtlety and that she could clearly communicate directly from her soul in a way that I would not expect from somebody who at the time was seventeen. That’s when I first heard her, I think, or when I first heard her as a leader, and not just warming up for her dad.

“I feel very fatherly toward Shemekia as does John Hahn, of course. When she did her first session for us, she was seventeen, and I’d never worked with an artist that young. The closest would be Lurrie [Bell], whom I worked with when he was nineteen as part of the Sons of Blues for the Living Chicago Blues series, but Lurrie was clearly already walking in some big shoes, and with Shemekia I wasn’t so sure because she can go back and forth between  being fifty and fifteen very quickly. She has a great ability to laugh at herself. Every once in a while she’ll come across as being insecure, and then the next moment she will be a wise adult.

“I am proud of the fact that some of the songs that she sang, some of the more serious songs that she sang were ones that I brought her and that she was able to immerse herself in. A good example being “Salt in My Wounds” that she did at the Chicago Blues Festival the other day which she did on her first album, and that one was one literally she had only heard the song a few times before she decided to record it, but the performance of “Ghetto Child” that she did on that first album and she does on virtually every show – when I heard her sing” Ghetto Child” when she was seventeen, it was as adult, as mature, as soulful, as nuanced as any fifty-year-old blues singer I’ve ever heard. It was all these. I didn’t need to do much. It was already there when I got there.”

BluesWax caught up with Shemekia two days after the impromptu ceremonies. She was composed but still in shock.

John Hahn: Here she is, The Queen of the Blues!

Shemekia Copeland: How ya doin’?

Don Wilcock for BluesWax: Good. How are you?

SC: I’m okay. It’s very weird, people calling me that.

BW: Knowing how shy you are and unassuming you are, this must be as much of a burden to you as it is a blessing.

SC: [Giggle] You know, I’m trying to accept it without complaining, but it’s just crazy. In my heart Koko Taylor was my queen, not only because she was the Queen of the Blues and I idolized her because she was a great singer, but she was such a great friend. She was so good to me. I mean, she’s so good to me.

Even when she was at my house with her feet up eatin’ catfish, I still was like, “Holy s***,  Koko Taylor is sittin’ on my freakin’ couch eating catfish.” I always looked up to her. I put very few people on a pedestal, but she certainly was on one as far as I’m concerned. So, for people to call me that is really weird. When Cookie came out she said, “Now it’s your time,” and I’ve always felt like now is my time, but being called that is so weird, you know?

BW: And you had no inkling at all about what was about to happen?

SC: No, I had just finished “Ghetto Child,” and it was a good moment, and then, all of a sudden Cookie comes out and Marie [Dixon, Willie’s widow] comes out, and Jimmy Reed’s daughter comes out, my mom, and John [Hahn] is standing there with flowers. Bruce Iglauer is there, and I’m like, “What the hell is going on?” It’s weird.

“A lot of people don’t know that about most blues artists is

that we’re so close to God and very spiritual

and have very strong, powerful beliefs.”

BW: You must have had some inkling that something was about to happen. What did you think it was going to be?

SC: You know I didn’t know exactly what, but I saw Cookie holding a bag, and I’m thinking, “Oh, maybe I’m getting some kind of award of some sort. I didn’t know what it was, and then she pulls out Koko’s crown, and I thought I would pee my pants.

BW: Did you know that was the tiara she had worn? Did you recognize it?

SC: No, I didn’t recognize it because the whole time I’ve known Koko I’ve never seen her wear a tiara, but it was her tiara, and the fact that I had it on my head was crazy. It was crazy!

BW: I understand you wore it when the Alligator fortieth anniversary band came up and you were singing with Lonnie Brooks. I understand you continued to wear it. Is that correct?

SC: Yeah, I had it on all day, and Cookie was adamant about me wearing it all day. So, I think, “Okay,” but at every moment just having it on my head is just weird. I can’t even tell you. It was an out of body experience, and then having I don’t know how many thousands of people out there watching all of this. It was amazing, uh-ha, amazing.

BW: What do you think are the things that are the best about it and what are the things that are going to dog you about it?

SC: Well, you know it’s funny because my whole entire career I’ve never felt pressure. I just always wanted to be Shemekia and do Shemekia and just do what I’m doing, and I’ve never felt like I’ve had to do anything specifically, and I’m trying not to feel that way now, but with this it’s almost like I don’t know what people are going to expect from me now, what they expect me to do, and I just really hope that they expect me to just keep doing what I’ve been doing and then just doing Shemekia.

BW: You’re about to go back in the studio this fall to do your next recording for Telarc.

SC: Uhm-hm.

BW: Are you prepared for that? Have you some songs in mind? Do you have a producer? What’s going on with that?

SC: Yeah, I am prepared. I’m ready to go in. I never try to rush into the studio anymore. I just want to take my time. One of the best things about my last recording with Alligator and my first recording with Telarc was the time in between. So many things happened in my life. I got older. My life changed quite a bit in meeting my husband and going to Iraq and Kuwait and having experiences. And so far I’m still having more experiences and I love that because I’m able to put that in my records. My last record I was able to talk about politics, religion, just all kinds of different things I never talked about before because I felt nobody wants to hear a teenaged girl who knows nothing talking about politics and religion. What the hell does she know?

BW: Notice I’m not laughing about that because you’re one of the oldest people for your age in this business, and I think it’s fascinating that a person as young as you are would be officially crowned Queen of the Blues by the daughter of the former queen and by the City of Chicago. The governor endorsed it. The City of Chicago endorsed it.

SC: Yeah, official proclamation of the City of Chicago which is the blues city of the world.

BW: Who is going to produce your next album?

SC: You know I believe that we’re going to do it with Oliver Wood again. We’re gonna do a double take which I’ve done once before with my first album and my second album with Jimmy Vivino.

BW: Right.

SC: So this is only the second time I’m doing this repeating producers. I just kinda had the feeling that we weren’t done yet. I wanted to make more music, so I think we’re gonna have the opportunity to that here, now.

BW: You went to Iraq in 20009 and slated to go again this year, but that didn’t happen. Is that right?

SC: Right, the trip was postponed so we’ll probably do it at some point. I don’t know when, but we’ll do it at some point.

BW: Why did you decide to do that, and how did if feel?

SC: It was an amazing experience. It was an amazing experience. I love being there, and I just felt like I was making a difference, and the best part about it was just walking around, being able to talk and have conversations with people and while we were on stage for that hour and a half or however long the show was on, it felt like we took them away. They forgot where they were for an hour and a half, and to be able to do that was really wonderful for us.

BW: And you’re going to do it again!

SC: Yup. Afghanistan, baby!

BW: I’m so happy for you on your award, and I guess my advice as an old man to a young queen is just remember who you are, stay centered and focused on who you are as a person.

SC: Yeah.

BW: And stay true to your own muse, and you’ll do just fine just as you always have. And remember your dad!

SC: I always will. I really do thank God for my parents. They made a really good solid foundation for me, and I don’t take anything that’s happened to me in my career for granted because I know that old saying, ere today, gone tomorrow. Well, now it’s here today, gone today. So you know I’m just grateful, grateful for all these moments and all these times in my life, and I’m just gonna try to keep on enjoying it and live up to this honor that has been bestowed upon me.

BW: What’s your favorite memory of Koko?

SC: It has to be her hanging out on my couch eating catfish because she was just so down home and real. She was just a real down home person and spiritual, and I think a lot of people don’t know that about most blues artists is that we’re so close to God and very spiritual and have very strong, powerful beliefs.

Don Wilcock is editor-in-chief of BluesWax. He would enjoy seeing your comments below.