Living Blues #272 May/June 2021

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Shemekia Copeland

I Need to Walk My Own Path

By David Whiteis

Blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland has grown up before our eyes. Now a fully realized artist, we catch up with Copeland 20 years after her first LB cover story.

J. Red

From Urban R&B to Southern Soul Blues 

By Christopher Klug

Atlanta-based Jesse Redmond, who goes by the name of J. Red, is a rising southern soul blues star and a powerful player in the regional music scene.

Kemp Harris

It Just Comes Out of Me 

By Scott M. Bock

Vocalist and songwriter Kemp Harris attacks every performance with a theatrical flair. A mainstay in the Boston-area blues scene, Kemp talks of life in the North for a southern transplant.

Robert “Lefty Preacher” Sampson

Don’t Limit Yourself 

By Mike Stephenson

Forty-one-year-old Robert “Lefty Preacher” Sampson has spent his life crafting a career in music. A four-time finalist at the International Blues Challenge, Sampson’s dreams may be close to reality.

Let It Roll

Elmore James, Trumpet Records, Jackson, Mississippi, August 5, 1951 

By Jas Obrecht

Elmore James recorded just one song at his August 5, 1951, session for Jackson, Mississippi–based Trumpet Records, but that song cemented his place in blues history. 

Record Reviews

• New Releases: Little Freddie King, Guy Davis, and Maria Muldaur
• Reissues: Down Home Blues: Miami, Atlanta & the South Eastern States, Hip Lankchan, and Mickey Baker

Books

Editorial

Blues News 

2021 Living Blues Festival Guide 

Obituaries 

Radio Charts 

Cover photo by Mike White
Caption: Shemekia Copeland, 2021.