Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of blues history will be familiar with the names – and probably at least a few of the songs – of blues masters John Lee Hooker and Johnny Clyde Copeland. But with both bluesmen gone for now more than a decade, it’s comforting to know that the legacies of these two artists will continue to be carried on not only through their own terrific recordings but also through the music of at least one member of their respective offspring, with daughters Zakiya Hooker and Shemekia Copeland both serving as excellent examples of the talented second-generation blues acts helping to keep the genre alive, along with a field of male counterparts that includes the likes of Lurrie Bell, Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith, Mud and Big Bill Morganfield, Elmore James Jr., and Bernard Allison. Here’s a look at the recent albums from both these daughters of the blues, which would no doubt make their fathers very proud.
Shemekia Copeland, Outskirts of Love (Alligator Records)
Having inherited the title following the death of the great Koko Taylor, the reigning “Queen of the Blues” returns to the same label on which her first four albums were released with her latest CD Outskirts of Love, a gritty, frequently dark offering that ranks among the very best we’ve heard from her.
Produced by Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers), who also plays on guitar, Outskirts of Love is a heartfelt mix of rootsy, tailored originals such as the opening title track – a slightly rocking number with a country twang, not to mention a pretty killer guitar solo – and the clever, country blues commentary on homelessness in “Cardboard Box” (more on this one in a moment), and terrific covers of tunes from the elder Copeland (a greasy, horn-laced “Devil’s Hand”), ZZ Top (“Jesus Just Left Chicago,” featuring the band’s Billy Gibbons on guitar), Albert King (“Wrapped Up in Love Again”), Mighty Mo Rodgers (the powerful “The Battle is Over (But the War Goes On)”), Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Long as I Can See the Light”), and Jessie Mae (Hemphill) Brooks (the creeping gospel number “Lord, Help the Poor and Needy”, a song you could easily envision Copeland’s father having also done), among others.
Copeland at 2015 Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival
With its tales of runaway brides, murder, the dangers of the music industry, sin and temptation, and dealing with the devil, there’s of course lots to like on Outskirts of Love. But our favorite songs of the bunch have to be the husky, soulful “I Feel a Sin Coming On” (Solomon Burke), again accented by horns, and aforementioned “Cardboard Box”, a duet with singer and guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart co-penned by UK bluesman Ian Siegal and that offers such terrific lyrics as “don’t need a door, I don’t need locks, livin’ my life in a cardboard box” and “Now it don’t matter what you own, a little shack or a mansion of stone/ life is rough, it only gets worse/ we all end up in a box, I just got mine first”. Having been just one step from a life in the streets for much of our youth, we’ve often joked about having lived in a cardboard box, so this is one to which we can really relate!
Robert Randolph adds steel guitar on the haunting “Crossbone Beach”, while Pete Finney brings the pedal steel for the uptempo, country-flavored “Drivin’ Out of Nashville”, on which Copeland concludes that “country music ain’t nothin’ but the blues with a twang”.
In addition to Copeland’s usual strong vocals, the album offers some intriguing instrumentation from Wood, the other band members (Jano Rix on drums, percussion and keyboards and Lex Price on bass), and their guests, who also include Nashville guitarist Will Kimbrough on more than a handful of songs.
If the world wasn’t already calling her the “Queen of the Blues”, it sure would be after hearing this album.
Zakiya Hooker, In the Mood (Boogie With The Hook Records)
With brother John Lee Hooker, Jr., having elected to pursue a higher calling and now devoting his time and talents fully to the gospel – what he calls a move “from the blues to the pews” – Zakiya Hooker may be the last of John Lee Hooker’s children still singing the blues. But we think it’s safe to say that Zakiya is up to the challenge, judging by her latest release In the Mood, with songs like the smoky, creeping opener “Receipt to Sing the Blues” and harmonica-laced, Chicago-style shuffler “Hang on for Awhile” serving as pretty much the only proof of purchase you’ll need to be convinced of Hooker’s legitimacy to the blues throne.
That said, Hooker gives us a whole lot more, from the swinging “Another Kind of Blues” – one of several tracks to feature horns – and tender, jazzy numbers such as “Drowning in Your Love” and “Protect Me from the Blues”, to the breezy “Look Me Up”, and the saucy, slow blues grooves of “Let’s Do Something” and the title track, a tune obviously inspired by her father’s hit “I’m in the Mood”, but from Zakiya’s own perspective, with lyrics that talk of putting on her dress and stiletto heels and meeting up with her man to hear some downhome blues: “some John Lee Hooker and B.B. King, maybe even a little Buddy Guy will do.”
That’s all rounded out by the measured, funky rap “Art of Divorce”; the slow, simmering blues of “One Step Two”; and the soft closing lullaby “Sweet Baby J” – Zakiya’s tribute to a son she lost nearly two and a half decades ago – making this latest release from Hooker one of the most vibrant and diverse blues offerings – and most pleasant surprises – of the year. If it’s good blues you’re seeking, this one will definitely put you In the Mood!