Shemekia Copeland – Done Come Too Far
Shemekia Copeland – Done Come Too Far
Format: CD
Label: Alligator Records
Release: 2022
Release date: August 19, 2022
Shemekia Copeland’s 8th Alligator album – ‘Done Come Too Far’
Over the last few years, she’s been singing not only about the time-honored blues subjects of love lost and found, but also about facing down and trying to heal the perilous world we live in. As a contemporary Black woman and a mother, she’s bringing her immense talent and charisma to songs that reflect her deep social conscience.
With Done Come Too Far, Shemekia delivers soul-stirring performances of fresh material inspired by her own experiences and today’s headlines, interspersed with joyful songs that celebrate the glory of love and laugh at human foibles.
Done Come Too Far brings Shemekia’s intense, fearless attitude to compositions about race relations and struggles (Done Come Too Far, The Talk, Gullah Geechee and Too Far To Be Gone), recovery from child molestation (The Dolls Are Sleeping) and an all-too-prescient song about the murder of children (Pink Turns To Red, which was written and recorded before the recent Texas mass shooting).
But at the same time, she shares her joy in her father’s (bluesman Johnny Copeland) composition Nobody But You and Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Barefoot In Heaven and tells the humorous tales of Fried Catfish And Bibles and Fell In Love With A Honky.
Done Come Too Far builds on the foundation set by her two previous albums, America’s Child and the Grammy-nominated ‘Uncivil War.’ With these albums, Shemekia and producer Will Kimbrough melded elements of the Americana genre with her blues/R&B sound, incorporating acoustic instruments like mandolin and banjo along with the staples of electric blues instrumentation.
Shemekia’s made a lot of musical friends over her almost four decades of performing (she was singing professionally at 16 and cut her debut album, Turn The Heat Up, for Alligator when she was 18). Her friends Sonny Landreth, Cedric Burnside, Kenny Brown, Oliver Wood, Charles Hodges and Aaron Lee Tasjan were all eager to lend their talents to the new album.
Done Come Too Far is the strongest statement of Shemekia Copeland’s career, with hard-hitting lyrics and adventurous music and arrangements. Her bold, ferocious performances expand the definition of blues while honoring her deep roots in the tradition. The album will be essential listening not only for any fan of contemporary blues but also for those who prize courageous, cutting-edge music that speaks honestly about the world today.
Website: https://www.shemekiacopeland.com/
Tracks:
01. Too Far to Be Gone (feat Sonny Landreth)
02. Pink Turns to Red
03. The Talk
04. Gullah Geechee
05. Why Why Why
06. Fried Catfish and Bibles
07. Done Come Too Far (feat Cedric Burnside)
08. Barefoot in Heaven
09. Fell in Love with a Honky
10. The Dolls Are Sleeping
11. Dumb It Down
12. Nobody But You
