Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Shemekia Copeland

Wicked (Alligator)

Shemekia Copeland, 21, is a major talent, but she’s still in a sort of Aretha Franklin jazz phase. Once she finds her signature “Respect,” the late bluesman Johnny Copeland’s daughter has a chance to reinvent R&B singing. From the first song, “It’s 2 A.M.,” Copeland belts in sync with the loud, electric blues-rock of guitarist-producer Jimmy Vivino (of the “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” band). She eases up occasionally for ballads, and her duet with the great Ruth Brown, “If He Moves His Lips,” ends with a hilarious give-and-take about lying men. But the conventional band, and blues-cliche songwriters such as John Hahn, can’t find the right connection.