John Clyde Copeland (March 27, 1937 – July 3, 1997) was an American

Texas blues Texas blues is blues music from Texas. As a regional style, its original form was characterized by jazz and swing influences. Later examples are often closer to blues rock and Southern rock. History Texas blues began to appear in the early 1900 ...

guitarist and singer. In 1983, he was named Blues Entertainer of the Year by the

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs the ...

. He is the father of blues singer

Shemekia Copeland Charon Shemekia Copeland (born April 10, 1979) is an American electric blues vocalist. To date, she has released ten albums and been presented with seven Blues Music Awards. Career Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She i ...

. In 2017, Copeland was posthumously inducted into the

Blues Hall of Fame The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...

Career

Copeland was born in Haynesville, Louisiana. Influenced by

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...

, he formed the Dukes of Rhythm in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, and made his

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

debut in 1956, signing with

Duke Records Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis (WDIA program director and DJ) and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey ...

the following year. Although his early

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

met with little commercial success, he became a popular touring act over the next two decades. His early recording career embraced blues, soul and rock and roll. He recorded

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

for Mercury, Golden Eagle and All Boy, amongst others. His first single was "Rock 'n' Roll Lily", and he later cut successes such as "Down on Bending Knees" and "Please Let Me Know". For the most part, his singles featured Copeland as a vocalist more than a guitar player. Driven by

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

to rethink his future, he moved to New York City in 1976, and played extensively in Eastern cities. In New York he met a young record producer named Dan Doyle who was instrumental in getting Copeland signed with

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

. Doyle produced Copeland's initial Rounder releases including '' Copeland Special'' for which he won a W. C. Handy Award in 1981, and '' Bringin' It All Back Home'' (1985). Copeland also recorded with

Albert Collins Albert Gene Drewery, known as Albert Collins and the Ice Man (October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993),Skeely, Richard. "Albert Collins: Biography" Allmusic.com. was an American electric blues guitarist and singer with a distinctive guitar style. ...

and

Robert Cray Robert William Cray (born August 1, 1953) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards. Early life Robert Cray was born on August 1, 1953, in Columbus, Georgia, while his father was stationed at ...

, winning a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

for

Best Traditional Blues Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011 and from 2017 onwards. Until 1992 the award was known as Best Traditional Blues Performance and was twice awarded to individual tracks rather than albums. The award w ...

, for the album ''

Showdown! ''Showdown!'' is a collaborative blues album by guitarists Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland, released in 1985 through Alligator Records. The album is mostly made of original material, with cover versions of songs like T-Bone Walk ...

''. Touring widely, Copeland appeared at the 1983

Long Beach Blues Festival The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West coast of the United States, West Coast (first being the San ...

and the 1988

San Francisco Blues Festival The San Francisco Blues Festival was active from 1973 until 2008, and was located in San Francisco, California. It was the one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. History Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the ...

. Copeland also played at the 1985

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

, as a guest with

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, ...

and his band Double Trouble. Vaughan and Copeland performed the

Bob Geddins Robert L. Geddins (February 6, 1913 – February 16, 1991) was an American San Francisco Bay Area blues and rhythm and blues musician and record producer. Geddins was born in Highbank, Texas, United States, a town ten miles south of Marlin, who c ...

song "Tin Pan Alley" together on Vaughan's

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

''Blues at Sunrise''. He also played on the first edition of BRBF (Blues Peer Festival) later that year. His later years were dogged by ill health due to a congenital heart defect. He died, aged 60, in

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (NYP/CUIMC), also known as the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), is an academic medical center and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. It includes Co ...

, in New York City, from complications of heart surgery for a heart transplanted six months earlier. Copeland was a resident of

Teaneck Teaneck () is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,776, reflecting an increase of 516 (+1.3%) f ...

, New Jersey. His daughter,

, established a successful career as a singer. He was also survived by his wife, son and two daughters. In 2017, Copeland was posthumously inducted in to the

Selected recordings

*1981: '' Copeland Special'' (Rounder) *1984: ''

Texas Twister Texas Twister is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Roy Thomas and penciller George Pérez and first appeared in '' Fantastic Four'' #177 (December 1976). He w ...

'' (Rounder) *1985: '' Bringin' It All Back Home'' (Rounder) *1989: ''Blues Power'' (

P-Vine Records P-Vine Records is an independent record label based in Tokyo, Japan. History It was started in 1976 by Blues Interactions, a firm founded in 1975 by Yasufumi Higurashi and Akira Kochi, as a record label focused on black music. The label name c ...

) *1989: ''Boom Boom'' (Rounder) *1991: ''When the Rain Starts Fallin (Rounder) *1994: '' Catch Up with the Blues'' (Verve) *1995: ''Jungle Swing'' (Verve Records) *1996: ''Texas Party'' *1998: '' The Crazy Cajun Recordings'' (Edsel Records) *1999: ''Honky Tonkin

References

External links

Official memorial website
* Copeland biographyat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Johnny 1937 births 1997 deaths African-American guitarists American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Singers from New York City People from Haynesville, Louisiana People from Teaneck, New Jersey Kent Records artists Grammy Award winners Texas blues musicians Singers from Louisiana 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Louisiana Guitarists from Texas Guitarists from New York City Rounder Records artists P-Vine Records artists American funk musicians American dance musicians Wand Records artists 20th-century African-American male singers

Career

Selected recordings

See also

References

External links