Playlist

Band Benefits, Belters and B-3s

By NATE CHINEN

Published: February 20, 2009

Shemekia Copeland

For much of her roughly decade-long career Shemekia Copeland has unleashed her brass-girded singing  voice on full-dress electric blues records. “Never Going Back” (Telarc) is something different, a partial study in twang produced by the guitarist Oliver Wood, of the roots-rocking Wood Brothers. It’s not a big departure for Ms. Copeland, but it does open up a new way to hear her, backed by musicians like Mr. Wood, the keyboardist John Medeski and the guitarist Marc Ribot.

The songs, half of them partly written by Mr. Wood, are different too. On “Broken World,” a gospel-tinged ballad, and “Never Going Back to Memphis,” a simmering stomp, Ms. Copeland reins in her power; on “Circumstances,” by her father, Johnny Copeland, she adopts a back-porch vibe. And on ”The Truth Is the Light” and “Big Brand New Religion,” she sounds deliciously at ease with her authority, as if she had nothing whatsoever to prove.

Actual Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/arts/music/22play.html?_r=1