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entertain the public often as a street entertainer. After recording her first original tune (and
theme song), ‘Mean Mary from Alabam'’, when she was six years old, the song went public and
she was given the name Mean Mary by the press; She has used it ever since. An outstanding
banjo player (she uses a beautiful black Deering Crossfire electric banjo) she also plays guitar
and fiddle and is, with her mother, the author of five novels and by herself, two music
instruction books.

“Portrait of a Woman (Part 1)” was released on July 22, 2022 and comes with eleven tracks of
exemplary musicianship ranging from the intricately picked dance tune ‘Merry Eyes’, through
the personal tale of the delights of touring in ‘Big Tour Bus’ (”My feet on the dash, my head on
the seat, a musician’s life sure is sweet, This couldn’t get much more glamorous, but I wouldn’t
mind a big tour bus—and a driver named Gus”) and the deeply rooted Irish vibes of ‘Bette
Come Back’. The entrancing tune ‘Butterfly Sky’ is a wondrous fiddle piece.

This is a very different album to her last one, “Alone”, on which she was just—err…alone. Here
she has the support of a full band and vocal assistance too from the likes of her brother Frank.

How DID I miss this lady‽

Ian K McKenzie

Shemekia Copeland—Done Come Too Far—Alligator

Shemekia first went on stage with her father, bluesman
Johnny Copeland, when she was eight years old. Ten years
later she made her first album ‘Turn the Heat Up’ for Alligator.
“The Soul Truth” in 2005 earned Shemekia eight Blues Music
Awards and a host of Living Blues Awards. Her 2020 release
“Uncivil War” was named the 2020 Blues Album Of The Year
by DownBeat, MOJO and Living Blues magazines.

Shemekia, like many of her fellow Americans is hugely

concerned about the direction her country has taken in the
last decade and through her albums “America’s Child”, “Uncivil War” and now “Done Come Too
Far” she has “…been trying to put the ‘United’ back into United States. Friends, family and
home, these things we all value.”

Well, she has done it again, Twelve tracks, immaculately produced by multi-instrumentalist/
songwriter Will Kimbrough. Subject matter ranges through a critical contemporary view of the
world, examining, ‘The Talk’ (black youth and cops), the search for equality (’Done Come Too
Far’) and ‘Too Far To Be Gone’ ( “If you think we’re stopping, you got it wrong.”) and the
prescient ‘Pink Turns To Red’, recorded before the recent outrage in Uvalde, TX.

Shemekia is a child of her time and in pushing for change, confronting racism and hatred and
gun violence, she is both a voice for ordinary people and a poet rooted deep in the blues.
Outstanding. Award winning. Inspiring.

Ian K McKenzie