Shemekia Copeland Returns to Teaneck on Tuesday

On her new album, “Outskirts of Love,” former Teaneck resident Shemekia Copeland gives voice and hope to troubled characters.

“Everybody is on the outskirts of something on this record, whether it’s love, justice, homelessness or whatever it may be,” Copeland said by phone. “I bring what’s very important to me to my records and always try to find a positive way to help people.”

“Outskirts of Love,” the feted blues singer’s first album in three years, was released last month. Copeland, who graduated from Teaneck High School in 1997, returns to the township on Tuesday for a show at Mexicali Live.

Each track on the album has its own distinct message: homelessness (“Cardboard Box”), poverty (“Lord, Help the Poor and Needy”) and regret (“Crossbone Beach”). Copeland’s emotive vocals are by turns commanding, spiritual, sultry and playful. She said that she aims for a live feel in the recording studio. “When I’m in the vocal booth I pretend that I’m onstage,” Copeland said. “You have to jump inside every song.”

“Outskirts of Love” contains a mix of original and cover songs. “Devil’s Hand” is a track by Copeland’s late father, Texas blues guitar great Johnny Copeland.

“I like the content of the song,” she said. “It’s about when you mess with the devil, the devil wrecks your life like a hurricane. He has so many great songs. It was tough to decide which one to pick for the album.”

Copeland also lays down a fiery rendition of ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago” — the band’s frontman, Billy Gibbons, plays guitar on the track. “After I moved to Chicago, I always felt it would be a cool song to do,” Copeland said. “I ran into Billy and he told me how he used to always go see my dad play in Texas. I was completely honored that he said yes to playing on the album.”

She also imparts an inspiring gospel take on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Long As I Can See the Light” and gives a nod to country on the original track, “Drivin’ Out of Nashville.”

Copeland said that blues, gospel, soul and country are one big musical family and added that she sees a parallel between music’s separation into tightly-defined genres and divisions between cultural groups. “We’re all connected but we separate ourselves,” Copeland said. “Why, I have no idea.”

Copeland moved to Teaneck from Manhattan for her sophomore year of high school and lived in the town through her late teens. While she was surrounded by blues music growing up and sang at an early age, Copeland did not immediately aspire to follow the path of her famous father.

“I didn’t think of singing as a career until I was around 16,” Copeland said. “I got a calling to sing and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m not exactly sure if there was a specific thing that inspired it, but when you find your calling you follow it.”

Copeland’s first touring experience came when she opened for her ailing father as a teenager shortly before his death in 1997. At the time, Johnny Copeland told his daughter that he needed her to help care for him on the road. But Copeland said that her father really wanted to make sure she got a start in the blues scene before he died.

“Really he was doing it all for me,” she said. “He went out of his way to get me that exposure.” Copeland soon made a name for herself, based on her talent more than her pedigree. She received rave reviews from critics and musicians after nearly every show.

Copeland released her first album, “Turn the Heat Up,” at age 18 in 1998. Follow-up disc, “Wicked” (2000), won three Blues Music awards and was nominated for a Grammy award for best blues album. Her 2012 effort, “33?,” also earned a Grammy nomination. “Outskirts of Love” is Copeland’s eighth album.

She has performed worldwide with music royalty, including Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. After singing at the White House in 2012 with Jagger for President Obama, the former sent her a congratulatory bottle of champagne.

But she’s not about to rest on the laurels of her lofty achievements thus far. “I want to keep growing and be innovative,” Copeland said. “Right now, I’m making the most exciting music of my career.”

WHO: Shemekia Copeland.

WHAT: Blues.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday.

WHERE: Mexicali Live, 1409 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck. 201-833-0011 or mexicalilive.com.

HOW MUCH: $25.

MORE INFO: shemekiacopeland.com.