When blues singer, Shemekia Copeland performs live, it’s almost guaranteed to be an electrifying experience. She’s a powerful, soulful singer and she leads a tight quartet made up of electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards and drums. In this session, however, recorded in the Seattle studios of radio station, KPLU, we get a rare opportunity to hear Shemekia’s voice in a more intimate performance context. Instead of bringing her whole band, Shemekia arrived with just her guitar player, Arthur Neilson. They performed duet arrangements of three songs from Shemekia’s latest CD, ‘Never Going Back;’ Dirty Water, Born A Penny and Circumstances (written by her famous father, bluesman Johnny ‘Clyde’ Copeland). Shemekia also talked about the importance of expanding the boundaries of the blues and her recent tour of military bases in Iraq.
