Photo by Jim Summaria
(ATLANTIC CITY, NJ) -- Award-winning vocalist Shemekia Copeland will give a free performance as part of Tony Mart's Mardi Gras on the Boardwalk concert series at the Kennedy Plaza in Atlantic City on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. Copeland possesses one of the most instantly recognizable and deeply soulful roots music voices of our time. Showtime is 7:00pm.
The multi-GRAMMY nominee is beloved and honored worldwide for the fearlessness, honesty and humor of her revelatory songs, as well as for her winning, engaging personality. The Chicago Tribune says, “Copeland is the greatest female blues vocalist working today. There’s no mistaking the majesty of her instrument, nor the ferocity of her delivery.”
On Copeland’s GRAMMY-nominated 2024 Alligator Records album, Blame It On Eve , the 12 songs all hit hard, with jaw-dropping performances that instantly take hold and command repeated listening. “There’s serious business on the album,” Copeland says, “but there are a lot of smiles here too, a lot of joyous moments. It’s my blues for sure but it’s the brighter side. Issues are always important to me, but so is rocking, dancing and just having fun. And that’s something we all can all agree on.” Recently, Copeland won the 2025 Blues Music Award for top Album Of The Year for her 2024 release, Blame It On Eve. Copeland now holds 16 Blues Music Awards.
The concert takes place Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at Kennedy Plaza (2498 Boardwalk) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Admission is free, showtime is 7:00pm.
For more information on the Tony Mart presents Mardi Gras on the Boardwalk series, click here. The series runs from June 25 to September 3, 2025 with shows featuring R&B, funk, roots, and classic rock.
Blame It On Eve was recorded in Nashville and produced by instrumentalist/songwriter Will Kimbrough (who also produced her previous three albums). The songs tackle subjects as important as a woman’s right to choose and climate change, but also leave space for Copeland to have fun and unwind. From the autobiographical, rocking blues boogie Tough Mother (featuring Luther Dickinson), to the anthemic Blame It On Eve’s good-humored but serious focus on reproductive self-determination to the happy hour of Wine O’Clock, Copeland is inspired throughout.
Famed multi-instrumentalist Jerry Douglas adds his dobro to the fascinating, true story of Tee Tot Payne, the obscure early 20th century Alabama musician who taught Hank Williams the blues, and sacred steel player DaShawn Hickman brings his magic to the feisty and uplifting Tell The Devil. Shemekia’s friend, roots-rocker Alejandro Escovedo, joins in on the anguished, celestial query Is There Anybody Up There?. On the sad lover’s tale Belle Sorciere, Copeland sings the chorus in French, with the haunting melody composed by Pascal Danae of the Paris-based band Delgres (who were recently featured on the cover of Rolling Stone France). Copeland’s blistering, deep blues delivery of Down On Bended Knee—by her late father, the great bluesman Johnny Copeland—sets up the thought-provoking closer Heaven Help Us All, a song originally made famous first by Stevie Wonder and later by Ray Charles. Taken as a whole, the passionate, charismatic, joyous and at times confrontational Blame It On Eve is bound to become among the most celebrated releases of Copeland’s impressive, still-unfolding career.
Born in Harlem in 1979, Shemekia Copeland first stepped on stage with her famous father at New York’s Cotton Club when she was eight. Upon release of her Alligator Records debut Turn The Heat Up in 1998 when she was only 18, Copeland instantly became a blues and R&B force to be reckoned with. The New York Times and CNN, among many others, praised her talent, larger-than-life personality, dynamic, authoritative voice and true star power. With each subsequent release, Copeland’s fame has continued to grow, while her music has continued to evolve.
With 2018’s America's Child, Copeland brought out the first of her celebrated trilogy of albums concerning the state of the world, sung from her perspective as a young, Black woman and new mother. MOJO magazine named America’s Child the #1 blues release of 2018. It won both the Blues Music Award and the Living Blues Award for Album Of The Year. In addition to earning a GRAMMY Award nomination, Copeland’s groundbreaking 2020 follow-up, Uncivil War, was named the 2020 Blues Album Of The Year by DownBeat, MOJO and Living Blues magazines. “Shemekia Copeland is a powerhouse,” said Rolling Stone . “She can do no wrong.” She received her fifth GRAMMY nomination for Done Come Too Far, which closed the trilogy with a searing set of truth-to-power, rock and Hill Country blues-fueled songs. “Shemekia Copeland is an antidote to artifice,” said The Philadelphia Inquirer. “She is a commanding presence, a powerhouse vocalist delivering the truth.”
With Blame It On Eve, Copeland embarks on what she calls “a vacation from all the heaviness.” Blame It On Eve contains plenty of Copeland's trademark bold and courageous songs, but here Copeland is also looking to unplug from the weight of world. "My last three records have dealt with breaking news," she says. “This record is for people like me who want a break from the news.”
