Turn the Heat Up!

1	Turn up the Heat 5:20
2	I Always Get My Man 3:49
3	Salt in My Wounds 4:13
4	Cold Feet 4:11
5	Suspicion 3:55
6	My Turn Baby 4:08
7	Ghetto Child 4:06
8	Your Mama's Talking 4:21
9	Has Anybody Seen My Man? 3:36
10	Married to the Blues 7:12
11	Big Lovin' Woman 3:43
12	My Kind of Guy 3:50
13	Have Mercy 3:23
14	It Don't Hurt No More 7:05

Barnes & Noble

On her Alligator Records debut, TURN UP THE HEAT, 19-year-old Shemekia Copeland honors the lineage of fiery female vocalists like Bessie Smith, Etta James, and Janis Joplin with a set of butt-shakin' rockers and soul-soaked ballads. The self-described "queen-sized" singer, who is the daughter of the late Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland, has a big but childlike voice that recalls the '50s rhythm and blues of Little Esther Phillips. Two "bossy babe" tunes, the title track and "I Always Get My Man," open the proceedings. Then Copeland hits her threshhold of pain on "Salt In My Wounds," shouting and growling about a man who not only wronged her but threw his new love in her face. "Ghetto Child" is also a wrenching ballad, but good blueswomen always bounce back, and Copeland turns bold again for "Big Lovin' Woman" and "My Turn Baby." As a whole, TURN UP THE HEAT heralds the arrival of a new blues queen. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

The daughter of the late bluesman Johnny Copeland steps up to the plate with this, her debut album for the Alligator imprint. Although only 19 at the time of this recording, Copeland comes to this album with a mature style and vast amounts of assuredness. While comparisons to Koko Taylor and Etta James will be plentiful, Shemekia has enough tricks up her sleeve to make this a disc well worth checking out. Eight of the 14 tunes aboard are co-written by producer John Hahn and strong musical support is summoned up from guitarist Jimmy Vivino, with guest turns from Joe Louis Walker and "Monster" Mike Welch, while the Uptown Horns show up on three tunes, including the title track. Highlights are numerous on this disc, but special attention should be paid to Copeland's "Ghetto Child," a nice cover of Don Covay's "Have Mercy"; Walker's "Your Mama's Talking"; and the strutting "I Always Get My Man." This is one very impressive debut. Cub Koda