Johnny Copeland
Encyclopedia
Johnny Copeland was an American
Texas blues
guitarist
and singer.
, Louisiana
, United States
, while Copeland was becoming interested in music
, he also pursued boxing
, mostly as an avocation
, and it is from his days as a boxer that he got his nickname "Clyde." Also as a teenager
influenced by T-Bone Walker
he formed the 'Dukes of Rhythm' in Houston, Texas
, and made his recording
debut in 1956, signing with Duke Records
the following year. In his early years he played with such acts as Sonny Boy Williamson
, Big Mama Thornton
and Freddie King
. Although his early records
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 cut singles
for Mercury, All Boy and Golden Eagle, amongst others. His first single was "Rock 'n' Roll Lily", and he later cut regional successes such as "Please Let Me Know" and "Down On Bending Knees." For the most part, his singles featured Copeland as a vocalist more than a guitar player.
Driven by disco
to rethink his future, he moved to New York in 1979, and played extensively in the eastern cities. In 1981, he was signed by Rounder Records
, releasing album
s including Copeland Special (1981) and Bringing It All Back Home (1985), and touring widely. Copeland appeared at the 1983 Long Beach Blues Festival
, and the 1988 San Francisco Blues Festival
. He won a Grammy
in 1987
for best traditional blues album
for the album Showdown!
, recorded with Robert Cray
and Albert Collins
.
Copeland also played at the 1985 Montreaux Jazz Festival, as a guest with Stevie Ray Vaughan
and Double Trouble.
His later years were dogged by ill health due to a congential heart defect. He died, aged 60, in Harlem
, New York
, from complications during heart surgery for a heart transplanted
six months earlier. Copeland was a resident of Teaneck
, New Jersey
.
His daughter, Shemekia Copeland
, established a successful career as a singer. He was also survived by his wife, son and two daughters.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Texas blues
Texas blues
Texas blues is a subgenre of blues. It has had various style variations but typically has been played with more swing than other blues styles....
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and singer.
Career
Born in HaynesvilleHaynesville, Louisiana
Haynesville is a town in northern Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, United States, located just south of the Arkansas border. The population was 2,679 at the 2000 census....
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, while Copeland was becoming interested in music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, he also pursued boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, mostly as an avocation
Avocation
An avocation is an activity that one engages in as a hobby outside one's main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside of their workplaces were their true passions in life...
, and it is from his days as a boxer that he got his nickname "Clyde." Also as a teenager
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
influenced by T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...
he formed the 'Dukes of Rhythm' in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and made his recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
debut in 1956, signing with Duke Records
Duke Records
Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey Fat Girl", issued on Duke R-1, later amended to R-101.After forming a partnership...
the following year. In his early years he played with such acts as Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...
, Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million...
and Freddie King
Freddie King
Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...
. Although his early records
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
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 cut singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
for Mercury, All Boy and Golden Eagle, amongst others. His first single was "Rock 'n' Roll Lily", and he later cut regional successes such as "Please Let Me Know" and "Down On Bending Knees." For the most part, his singles featured Copeland as a vocalist more than a guitar player.
Driven by disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
to rethink his future, he moved to New York in 1979, and played extensively in the eastern cities. In 1981, he was signed by Rounder Records
Rounder Records
Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...
, releasing album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s including Copeland Special (1981) and Bringing It All Back Home (1985), and touring widely. Copeland appeared at the 1983 Long Beach Blues Festival
Long Beach Blues Festival
The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, was established in full in 1980, and is one of the largest Blues festivals and is the second oldest on the West Coast . It is held on Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend. For many years it was held on the athletic field on the...
, and the 1988 San Francisco Blues Festival
San Francisco Blues Festival
Debuting in 1973, the San Francisco Blues Festival is the longest running blues festival in the United States. Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the blues festival to educate the public about the history and evolution of the blues...
. He won a Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in 1987
Grammy Awards of 1987
The 29th Grammy Awards were held in 1987. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.-Award winners:*Record of the Year**Russ Titelman , Steve Winwood for "Higher Love"*Album of the Year...
for best traditional blues album
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011. From 2001 to 2003 the award recipients included the producers and engineers as well as the artists...
for the album Showdown!
Showdown!
Showdown! is a blues album by Albert Collins, Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland, released in 1985 through Alligator Records. The album won the Best Traditional Blues Recording Grammy Award in 1986.-Track listing:#"T-Bone Shuffle" – 4:54...
, recorded with Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
and Albert Collins
Albert Collins
Albert Collins was an American electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the US, Europe, Japan and Australia...
.
Copeland also played at the 1985 Montreaux Jazz Festival, as a guest with Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stephen Ray "Stevie Ray" Vaughan was an American electric blues guitarist and singer. He was the younger brother of Jimmie Vaughan and frontman for Double Trouble, a band that included bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton. Born in Dallas, Vaughan moved to Austin at the age of 17 and...
and Double Trouble.
His later years were dogged by ill health due to a congential heart defect. He died, aged 60, in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, from complications during heart surgery for a heart transplanted
Heart transplantation
A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. As of 2007 the most common procedure was to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the...
six months earlier. Copeland was a resident of Teaneck
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, and a suburb in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 39,776, making it the second-most populous among the 70 municipalities in Bergen County....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
His daughter, Shemekia Copeland
Shemekia Copeland
Shemekia Copeland is an American electric blues vocalist.-Career:Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is the daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland...
, established a successful career as a singer. He was also survived by his wife, son and two daughters.
Selected recordings
- Copeland SpecialCopeland SpecialCopeland Special is an album released by Johnny Copeland in 1981 on Rounder Records in the United States, Demon Records in the United Kingdom, and Black and Blue Records in France...
(Rounder) - Texas TwisterTexas Twister (album)Texas Twister is an album released by Johnny Copeland in 1984 on Demon Records in the United Kingdom, and Black and Blue Records in France. A CD with additional songs was released on Rounder Records in Canada in 1986. It is a compilation of four albums Copeland recorded for Rounder Records...
(Rounder) - The Crazy Cajun RecordingsThe Crazy Cajun RecordingsThe Crazy Cajun Recordings is a compilation album of music by the late Texas blues artist Johnny Copeland. It was released in 1998 on Edsel Records .The CD features 15 tracks with an additional 6 alternate recordings....
(Edsel Records) - When the Rain Starts Fallin (Rounder)
- Catch Up With The BluesCatch Up With The BluesCatch Up With The Blues is an album by Johnny Copeland released in 1994 on Verve Records. It was recorded April 27–30 and May 1–3, 1993 at Kiva Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee...
(Verve) - Jungle Swing (Verve RecordsVerve RecordsVerve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...
)
See also
- List of blues musicians
- List of electric blues musicians
- List of Texas blues musicians
- List of people from Teaneck, New Jersey
External links
- Official memorial website
- More information
- [ Copeland biography] at Allmusic websiteWebsiteA website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...