shemekia copeland uncivil war

​Shemekia Copeland (from the album Uncivil War available on Alligator Records) (by Bryant Liggett)
The latest from Shemekia Copeland finds the Blues woman exploring Roots and Gospel amidst her familiar Blues format. Lyrically smart and musically sharp, Uncivil War is defined by stabbing guitar and well-worded lyrics as Shemekia Copeland tackles current events and issues, a sharp tongue and mind that flitters about the angles in the music.  Shemekia Copeland gives a history lesson on albums opener “Clotilda’s On Fire”, singing about The Clotilda, a slave ship discovered in Alabama in the last few years. “Walk Until I Ride” carries a Gospel groove as Copeland ‘sings for the hopeless and the hungry’, the final minute turning the slow Gospel groove into a full-on church revival. the title track proving Shemekia Copeland can scrap electricity and lead an acoustic band; it’s a cut that wouldn’t be out of place closing a bluegrass festival.
At this point there have been so many Rolling Stones songs covered one wonders if Mick and Keef were writing for themselves or for others, Shemekia Copeland turns in an instrumentally stripped Jagger/Richards cut on Uncivil War, the laid-back and beautiful “Under My Thumb.”. “Apple Pie and A.45” is a straight-ahead dirty Blues addition and “She Don’t Wear Pink” is a supportive of woman cut, ditching the female stereotypes, a rhythm that owes more to old-school Rockabilly than classic Blues. Shemekia Copeland forays into other genres on Uncivil War, her Americana, Blues, Bluegrass, and Rockabilly cuts beefed up by Jason Isbell, Steve Cropper, Jerry Douglas, and Duane Eddy; this is another point of pride on what is already a stacked resume of a career. 
 
Listen and buy the music of Shemekia Copeland from AMAZON
For more information head over to the Shemekia Copeland website
 

---