Shemekia Copeland calls for unity!
Audio 29:00
Shemekia Copeland in concert.
© Mike White
By: Joe Farmer Follow
34 mins
Since her first album, "Turn the heat up", in 1998, singer Shemekia Copeland has continued to develop her art with application and gluttony.
At 41, she has become a determined woman, a mother, an American citizen aware of the challenges facing her country.
By publishing "Uncivil War", she gets more involved and indirectly gives a lesson in history to her contemporaries.
She confronts them with their contradictions and urges them to find unity.
Perhaps unwittingly, new President Joe Biden has echoed this sadly topical "Uncivil War" maxim.
There is no doubt that the new album by the always radiant Shemekia Copeland will resonate loudly in 21st century America.
Publicity
When asked to comment on the social and cultural situation of her native land, Shemekia Copeland does not seem surprised by the decay of American democracy.
Although she bitterly regrets seeing her contemporaries tear each other apart, she cannot help but observe the ravages of institutionalized racism from which she has suffered setbacks since her birth.
"
I am an African-American. Everything that is happening in the United States now is nothing new to me and hardly surprises me. I have been living with it since I was born. It is my daily life. ! "
, she specifies a little disillusioned.
However, giving up is not an option for this dynamic young woman who arouses unanimous praise.
Hailed by several honorary awards, including several "Blues Music Awards", she is now a voice that counts.
In recent years, his words have become more explicit.
Already in
America's Child
in 2018, the tone of his interpretations hinted at an increasingly assertive awareness.
In concert at the launch of the Chicago Blues Festival in the "Legends" club of Buddy Guy.
© Barry Brecheisen / WireImage for NARAS
It was in 2008, when the senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, acceded to the supreme office, that Shemekia Copeland perceived the absolute need to commit to defend the values of tolerance and mutual respect.
She believes in this new president who inspires her and is even found by his side, on February 21, 2012, during a celebration of the icons of the blues at the White House in the presence of BB King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Gary Clark Jr, Jeff Beck, among others… She will also invite her prestigious host to sing the chorus of
Sweet Home Chicago in
front of an audience of political and artistic personalities of the first order.
The about-face of the Trump years obviously reshuffled the cards and encouraged people to speak out.
Shemekia Copeland has felt the radicalization of minds harshly and persists in believing that the future is played in unison and not in division.
The title that opens the album "Uncivil War" by Shemekia Copeland.
© Alligator Records / Mike White
On her latest album,
Uncivil War
, she encourages her fellow citizens to reflect, to understand history, to question the causes of social unrest.
The song
Clotilda's on fire
evokes, for example, this sad episode of the slave trade when, in 1860, the captain of an American ship from Ouidah in Benin (former Kingdom of Dahomey) landed on the coast of Alabama with 110 Africans on board although the sale of slaves had been prohibited since 1807. For fear of being worried, he preferred to burn his boat (La Clotilda) and let it sink.
Fortunately, the 110 poor Africans in chains were previously transferred to another boat.
Captain Foster was fined only $ 1,000 for failure to pay customs duties on his ... "imports."
This single example shows how impunity has plagued American society for centuries.
Shemekia Copeland no longer tolerates it and intends to elicit useful and positive reactions through her repertoire.
A few days before the 50th anniversary of Alligator Records, the label that revealed her, the vibrant New York singer is more than ever determined to take up the challenge of carrying high the torch of justice and equality.
She will take care of it during an exceptional evening broadcast on the internet, March 13, 2021. No doubt that the altruistic spirit of Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, the father of Shemekia, who died in 1997, will hover over these sumptuous festivities!
→ The
Shemekia Copeland website
→
Alligator Records (50th anniversary), concert on March 13, 2021 in streaming
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