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Second-Generation Blues By Deborah Hopewell How many people get to sing at the Cotton Club at a mere 8 years of age? Or play guitar on one of Dad's albums when they are just 13? Or jam with Stevie Ray Vaughan on their 16th birthday? For blues diva Shemekia Copeland and guitarist Bernard Allison, those were just some of the perks that came with being second-generation blues kids. Yet both Copeland, 25, and Allison, 38 -- who perform with their bands on Saturday at the two-day Santa Cruz Blues Festival -- say their own careers definitely are not about cashing in on the family name, even if they'd wanted to. Allison, son of Chicago blues guitarist Luther Allison, who died in 1997, says, ``Especially when I returned from living in Europe, so many people came to hear me to see how close I was to my father, sound-wise: `Is he going to sound like Luther or not?' But it would take just one time for them to say, `He has a lot of his dad and a lot of something else.' ``I told every promoter and agent, and I still say, `Don't treat me any different because I'm Luther's son. I don't want anything handed to me on a platter; I want to show you I'm capable of carrying on the Allison name.' '' Copeland, daughter of the late Texas-style blues great Johnny ``Clyde'' Copeland, had a similar experience. ``It's more difficult because people are skeptical of you because of that name. They want to believe that you want a free ride off of that name,'' says Copeland, whose force-of-nature vocals invite comparison to Koko Taylor and Etta James and have earned Copeland four W.C. Handy Awards, five Living Blues Awards and a Grammy nomination. Copeland admits that, for a long while, she was a reluctant performer. ``I hated it,'' she says of her first time onstage at the Cotton Club. ``I didn't want to sing in front of people. I was always nervous about that.'' But her dad, she says, could see the future, and he knew his daughter was destined to become a singer. ``My father had excellent insight; he knew things that other people couldn't see -- and that was about all things, not just music.'' She adds, ``It happened really quick. One minute I hated it, and the next I didn't.'' After being diagnosed with a heart condition, Johnny Copeland started taking his daughter on tour with him when she was 16. Before long, she was opening the shows. ``Performing with my dad was a whole lot of fun, and I got to spend time with him, not knowing those would be the last years of his life,'' she says. Diverse influences Allison and Copeland are quick to point out that, as kids -- Allison grew up in Chicago and Florida, Copeland in Harlem -- they absorbed a broad range of musical influences, not just the obvious ones from their dads. ``I had all kind of good music around,'' says Copeland. ``There was gospel and soul, plus I grew up in the era of hip-hop. So when I was walking to school, I'd hear that, too.'' As a result, Copeland and Allison have forged unique musical identities, rooted in blues but infused with a broad palette of styles that connect with younger audiences. ``I'm the baby of nine kids, and all of my older siblings had their own preference of music they'd listen to,'' says Allison from Minneapolis, his home now. ``My mom had gospel; one sister had funk; and another brother had rock 'n' roll. And I carry it around with me now. ``One thing my dad always said was, `Don't let people lock you in to what you play, like they did me.' He was always pegged as Chicago Westside-style, playing the same old clubs that forced him to play Chicago blues. Then when he'd try to play outside of that, critics would nail him and say, `That's not the blues.' '' Europe beckons It was a musical dead end that finally prompted the elder Allison to move to Paris, where he gained the kind of celebrity reserved for rock stars in the States. After years of stardom in Europe, he was eventually ``rediscovered'' in the States. Meanwhile, Bernard was playing in Koko Taylor's band, learning about life on the road under the watchful eye of Taylor and her husband. ``I was too young to be in the clubs at the time; so Koko and her husband were like my godmother and godfather on the road,'' says Allison. ``She said, `Be careful with people offering you drinks and drugs.' '' Besides survival skills, the younger Allison learned another important lesson while with Taylor. ``The smartest thing of my career was to learn how to play behind someone,'' he says. ``Otherwise, I wouldn't have the experience of playing rhythm. It was fun, and even with my band now I give a lot of solos to my keyboard player because I like to fall back and play rhythm. It makes it more interesting for the audience, too.'' After three years with Taylor, Allison toured Canada with his own band. Then he got the call from his dad in Paris, asking him to be the elder Allison's bandleader. Bernard moved there in 1989 and stayed for 12 years, recording his own debut album in 1992. Since moving back to the United States a few years ago, Bernard spends about three months of the year performing in Europe, where ``we're always dealing with a sold-out tour. ``The U.S. and Europe are so different. There, they treat blues shows like a rock concert, with the production effort and promotion,'' continues Allison. ``I think the blues is held back sometimes in the U.S. Here, we need to educate the youngsters, create some new changes and tell them the blues isn't just the 12-bar blues. ``I think that's what it's going to take for the blues to survive, because a lot of our legends are leaving us fast.'' |
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