Shemekia Copeland

America’s Child alligator

it’s not often you find the chip surpassing the old block, but with respect to the late

Texas tussler Johnny copeland, his daughter shemekia is making that hallowed surname her own. Following her best-so-far outskirts of love album, copeland’s eighth release coincided with her pregnancy, and is an icy shiver at the poisoned world her son’s set to inherit.

refreshingly, rather than take the standard potshots at Donald Trump, copeland’s outlook is redemptive and hopeful, and it’s to her credit that this open-hearted material never comes off as cloying. opener ain’t got Time For Hate is a tough but tender strut, while

smoked Ham and Peaches is a banjodriven porch-rattler, its lyric demanding the truth, sung with a twang.

Best of all is the jolty shuffle of

americans – copeland namechecking a melting pot of ‘left-wing liberal geeks’, ‘grey-haired baby boomers, and ‘socialites and hermaphrodites’

– before a belting cover of the old man’s Promised myself brings this pan-generational triumph full circle.