Blues singer Shemekia Copeland [ tickets ], daughter of the late blues guitarist Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, plans to start the New Year with a series of U.S. club and theater dates that kick off in early January.

Copeland continues to tour in support of her most recent release, last year's "Wicked" (Alligator). The album peaked in October 2000 at No. 8 on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart.

Earlier this year, "Wicked"--which is the follow-up to Copeland's 1998 debut, "Turn the Heat Up"--won the annual W.C. Handy Blues Award for Album of the Year. Copeland herself, meanwhile, was crowned Contemporary Female Artist of the Year.

The complete liner notes for both "Turn the Heat Up" and "Wicked" are available online at Alligator Records' official website, as are streaming audio clips of an interview with Copeland.

Now in her early 20s, Copeland got her start at age 16, when her father, who had been diagnosed at the time with a heart condition, took her on the road and had her open his shows, according to an Alligator press release.

“Dad wanted me to think I was helping him out by opening his shows when he was sick, but really, he was doing it all for me," Copeland said in the release. "He would go out and do gigs so I would get known. He went out of his way to get me that exposure."

Johnny "Clyde" Copeland died in 1997 at age 60