Music festivals are chock full of hot performances this month
Written by Mike Barris |
For NJ Press Media
With
the festival and summer club season in full swing, Garden State jazz and blues
fans have plenty of music options for July, ranging from the tough blues of
Shemekia Copeland to the graceful vocal stylings of Marlene Verplanck. Here’s a
look at some of the best:
Shemekia Copeland can be as rough as they come with a tune, but what
distinguishes the soulful singer is the natural sweetness in her voice. The
daughter of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Copeland will play the first Blues at
the Park Cajun Cookout in Oceanport’s Monmouth Park on July 16.
Also
on the bill are Jonny Lang,
a hard rocker who first gained renown as a teenage blues-guitar prodigy, and Robert Cray, the blues
guitarist who helped launch a blues resurgence in the mid-’80s with his “Strong
Persuader” CD. At 16, Copeland joined her father, Johnny, on tour after he was
diagnosed with a heart condition.
"Dad
wanted me to think I was helping him out by opening his shows when he was sick,
but really, he was doing it all for me,” Copeland is quoting as saying in a
press release. “He would go out and do gigs so I would get known.”
Copeland
is touring in support of her new Alligator Records best-of CD, “Deluxe
Edition.”
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