71st Annual DOWN BEAT CRITICS POLL
Blues Artist Or Group Of The Year
Blues Album Of The Year – Done Come Too Far
This press release was provided to Vivascene by Alligator Records
“Singer Shemekia Copeland can belt with gusto. Her artistry has reached a new level …remarkable, substantive. Copeland’s work has expanded the audience for the blues.” ~ DownBeat
Legendary music publication DownBeat, in its August 2023 issue, announced the winners of the 71st Annual Critics Poll. The magazine honored Grammy-nominated blues, roots and soul singer Shemekia Copeland with two coveted DownBeat Critics Awards: Blues Artist Or Group Of The Year and Blues Album Of The Year (for her Grammy-nominated, Will Kimbrough-produced 2022 release, Done Come Too Far).
Copeland recently won the 2023 Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist — Vocals, the 15th Blues Music Award of her career. She also just took home four Living Blues Awards, including Blues Artist Of The Year (Female) and Contemporary Blues Album Of The Year for Done Come Too Far, and won the A2IM Libera Award for Best Blues Album as well. UK tastemaker magazine MOJO named the album the 2022 #1 Blues Album Of The Year. The equally influential Americana music site No Depression included the release among the top ten best albums of the year. Done Come Too Far’s title track was the #2 most played track on SiriusXM’s Bluesville channel, where Copeland continues to host her own daily radio program.
Possessing one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time, Copeland is beloved worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory music, as well as for delivering each song she performs with unmatched passion. Copeland connects with her audience on an intensely personal level, taking them with her on what The Wall Street Journal calls “a consequential ride” of “bold and timely blues.”