One of the best singers in modern blues, if not all of pop music, 26-year-old Shemekia Copeland has finally found the right producer–Steve Cropper, guitarist for Booker T. and the MG’s, who helped Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and others become ’60s soul heroes. Her fourth album opens with a one-two rock-and-soul punch–“Breakin’ Out” and “Who Stole My Radio?” (especially timely given recent music-industry payola revelations)–and peaks with the soft duet “Used.” But Copeland still has a problem with material, relying as always on good-not-great songwriters such as John Hahn for underwhelming mid-tempo rockers such as “Givin’ Up You.” Along with Cropper’s “Honey Do That Voo-Doo” and the funk boilerplate “Better Not Touch,” it’s unbefitting of a singer who’s perhaps one visionary collaborator short of greatness.
