Ruth Copeland -

Ruth Copeland (born 1946) is an English soul-rock singer who moved stateside in the late 1960s and released the 1970/71 albums Self Portrait and I Am What I Am on Invictus. After several years singing backup for Parliament, she wrapped her career with the 1976 RCA release Take Me to Baltimore.

Background

Ruth Copeland was born and raised in Consett, County Durham, where she attended Consett Grammar School and Consett Technical College. She entered music through the Collegians, a local jazz unit that featured her as a teenage vocalist in 1963. After her mother’s death, she left school and moved into club work, first on the Blackpool circuit and later in London, where she joined Ed and the Intruders, a combo that included her neighbor and early mentor Freddie “Fingers” Lee on keyboards.

In 1965, Copeland relocated to Detroit to join her sister. She performed in neighborhood clubs as a blues-folk singer and adopted the stage name Kelly Michaels for her first recordings. Producer Ollie McLaughlin issued her debut single, “Foggy Days” / “I Need Him”, on the Carla label in July 1967, giving her an initial foothold in the American independent scene. During this period, she also held clerical work and briefly married NFL player Karl Sweetan.

Detroit vocalist Edwin Starr heard her in a club and introduced her to Motown writer-producer Jeffrey Bowen, who became her partner and key advocate. Bowen entered the Holland-Dozier-Holland orbit during the establishment of Invictus Records, and Copeland signed to the new label in 1969. Invictus positioned her within The New Play, a short-lived vocal project that issued “A Gift of Me” / “The Music Box”, co-written under the Edith Wayne pseudonym.

Invictus then tapped Copeland for lyric duties on new HDH material. One early assignment—an unused draft based on homesickness—preceded Ron Dunbar’s rewrite for the hit “Band of Gold.” Her growing presence at the label led to deeper ties with George Clinton’s reorganized Parliament unit, also signed to Invictus. Copeland co-produced Osmium with Clinton and contributed two compositions, “Little Ole Country Boy” and “The Silent Boatman,” which reflected her interest in rustic American and British folk forms. These sessions set the stage for her solo trajectory and the material that would inform her first album.

Self Portrait

Ruth Copeland released her debut album, Self Portrait, in October 1970 on Invictus.

Copeland frames Self Portrait as a stylistically restless debut that moves between spare folk passages, taut funk-rock, chamber-pop, and a late-album operatic detour.

She fronts a core of P-Funk regulars — guitarist Eddie Hazel, bassist Billy “Bass” Nelson, drummer Tiki Fulwood, guitarist Ray Monette, keyboardist Bernie Worrell — with added work by guitarist Dennis Coffey, bassist Bob Babbitt, drummer Andrew Smith, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra players.

Copeland wrote five songs and co-wrote four with George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Eddie “E.” Wayne, Ruth Dunbar, and Lynn “Tau” Ross; Hazel and Clinton co-wrote “Your Love Been So Good to Me,” while Copeland, Wayne, Dunbar, and Alexander co-wrote “To William in the Night.” She closes the album with Giacomo Puccini’s “Un Bel Di (One Fine Day).”

She opens with a spoken-word prelude that aligns with Donovan’s “Atlantis,” then pivots to brisk singer-songwriter confessionals (“Thanks for the Birthday Card,” “No Commitment”), compact soul-pop vignettes (“The Music Box,” “A Gift of Me”), and harder passages marked by Hazel’s clipped, acidic phrasing (“Your Love Been So Good to Me,” “I Got a Thing for You Daddy”). “The Silent Boatman” stands apart as a slow, hymn-like piece with choir and orchestral shading.

A1. “Prologue: Child of the North” (5:40) – Copeland
A2. “Thanks for the Birthday Card” (4:26) – Copeland
A3. “Your Love Been So Good to Me” (3:16) – Clinton, Copeland, Ross
A4. “The Music Box” (3:40) – Wayne, Dunbar, Copeland
A5. “The Silent Boatman” (5:50) – Copeland

B1. “To William in the Night” (2:50) – Wayne, Alexander, Dunbar, Copeland
B2. “No Commitment” (3:19) – Copeland
B3. “I Got a Thing for You Daddy” (3:42) – Hazel, Clinton, Copeland
B4. “A Gift of Me” (1:52) – Wayne, Dunbar, Copeland
B5. “Un Bel Di (One Fine Day)” (5:50) – Puccini — adapted from Puccini’s aria in Madama Butterfly, written for soprano and performed here in an orchestral pop setting.

Sessions occurred at HDH Sound Studios with Copeland producing and L. T. Horn engineering.

The cover features Copeland’s own illustration. Invictus issued “The Music Box” as a single.

I Am What I Am

Ruth Copeland released her second album, I Am What I Am, in July 1971 on Invictus.

Copeland follows her debut with a heavier, more polarized set that leans into elongated psych-soul, fevered funk-rock, and dramatic reinterpretations of British rock staples.

She fronts a core P-Funk contingent — guitarist Eddie Hazel, keyboardist Bernard Worrell, drummer Tiki Fulwood, bassist Billy “Bass” Nelson — supported by guitarist Ray Monette, guitarist Ron Bykowski, bassist Dawn Hatcher, organist Dave Case, and pianist/organist Worrell.

Copeland wrote three songs and co-wrote four with George Clinton, Hazel, Donald Baldwin, and others; Hazel co-wrote “Suburban Family Lament” and interprets two Rolling Stones classics, “Play With Fire” and “Gimme Shelter.”

She divides the album between extended social commentaries and stark reinterpretations. “The Medal” unfolds as a slow, minor-key lament that broadens into charged passages with tensile guitar and rising vocal strain, while “Cryin’ Has Made Me Stronger” and “Hare Krishna” turn toward devotional pacing and mantra-like refrains. “Suburban Family Lament” anchors its clipped rhythm with breakbeat drums, brittle guitar textures, and faint stop–start organ figures, all pulled back beneath Copeland’s multi-tracked declarations. Her Stones covers bookend the second side: “Play With Fire” stretches into a long, shadowed dirge, while “Gimme Shelter” closes the record with escalating dynamics and declarative phrasing.

A1. “The Medal” (6:50) – Baldwin, Copeland — slow, melancholic piano intro (in E minor with dominant thirds) heralds Ruth’s vocal lament about the military draft, conveyed with poetic clarity on the American bureaucracy’s futile yet deadly imperialist entanglement in Indochina. Veers between tender vocal spotlights and swelling passages with strident statements and soaring guitars, which rev and crackle at the climax.
A2. “Cryin’ Has Made Me Stronger” (5:36) – Clinton, Copeland
A3. “Hare Krishna” (3:22) – Clinton, Copeland
A4. “Suburban Family Lament” (3:48) – Hazel, Copeland — breakbeat intro, overlaid with scratchy guitar, pocketed bass, and faint stop/start organ runs (in E), all minimized under Ruth’s flamboyant multi-tracked vocals, which coo, soar, and shout.

B1. “Play With Fire” (7:16) – Jagger, Richards — Copeland adapts the Rolling Stones’ 1965 ballad into a slow, extended lament with widened dynamic peaks.
B2. “Don’t You Wish You Had (What You Had When You Had It?)” (4:49) – Clinton, Copeland
B3. “Gimme Shelter” (7:54) – Jagger, Richards — drawn from the Rolling Stones’ 1969 recording, here recast as a long, rising vocal showcase with tense guitar inflections.

Sessions occurred at HDH Sound Studios in Detroit with Copeland producing and Barney Perkins engineering and remixing.

I Am What I Am features packaging by Craig Braun Inc. Invictus issued “Hare Krishna” (b/w “No Commitment”) in April 1971 and followed with “Gimme Shelter” (b/w “No Commitment”) in August 1971.

Take Me to Baltimore

Ruth Copeland released her third album, Take Me to Baltimore, in 1976 on RCA.

Copeland shifts from her earlier psych-soul intensity to a sleeker mid-’70s blend of soft-focus soul-rock, string-lined ballads, and clipped funk pieces shaped by New York–based studio players and co-producer Daryl Hall.

She fronts a compact, high-level session unit: guitarists Bob Kulick, Dick Wagner, and Eric Thorngren; bassist Francisco Centeno; keyboardists John Turi and Ralph Schuckett; drummer Steve Jordan; percussionist Jimmy Maelen; horn players Michael and Randy Brecker; and reedist Robin Kenyatta (alto saxophone, flute).

Copeland wrote nine songs with Hall, Thorngren, Turi, Hocher, Harris, Rae, and Wagner; guitarist Wagner co-wrote the title track, while Hall co-wrote two pieces. Jesse Rae contributes the lone outside composition (“Win or Lose”).

She divides the program between refined ballads and moderate-tempo funk-rock. “Win or Lose” opens with a push–pull melancholy, its contoured lines supported by gentle strings. “Oh Baby” balances drop-out verses with rising bridges framed by Philly-styled strings and choral backing. “Cliches” occupies a mid-tempo funk pocket with scratchy triads, high-register vocal interplay, and a bare middle section of chanted refrains over dark, minimal bass.

The title track tightens into a neo-Stax pulse with staccato horns, turgid guitars, and electric-piano flashes that intensify the pace around Copeland’s rising phrasing. “If You Don’t Want My Love” locks into deep, syncopated funk with clipped guitar and sliding string accents, while “Senses” ends the album as a dreamy, sparsely arranged ballad with longing verses and a wailing closing lead.

A1. “Win or Lose” (3:34) – Rae — a ballad in B built on shifting emotional tension, rising vocals, and subtle string lifts.
A2. “Milky Way Man” (4:49) – Hall, Copeland
A3. “Oh Baby” (3:19) – Harris, Copeland — moderate-paced, set in D♭, with alternating drop-out verses and swelling bridges shaped by strings and backing vocals.
A4. “Here You Come Again” (3:17) – Thorngren, Turi, Copeland, Hocher
A5. “Cliches” (4:26) – Thorngren, Copeland — mid-tempo in D minor with syncopated chordal triads, airy multi-tracked vocals, a sparse chant-led center, and a finale buoyed by strings and revved guitar lines.

B1. “Heaven” (3:44) – Hall, Copeland
B2. “Take Me to Baltimore” (4:11) – Wagner, Copeland — a D♭ soul-rocker with staccato horns, dense guitar figures, and accelerating rhythmic pressure behind Copeland’s exuberant delivery.
B3. “Some Hearts Need to Sing the Blues” (3:56) – Turi, Copeland
B4. “If You Don’t Want My Love” (4:08) – Thorngren, Turi, Copeland — deep syncopated funk in A♭ with clipped guitar, fluttering strings, and sliding licks across verse and multi-tracked F♯ chorus.
B5. “Senses” (4:17) – Thorngren — a D minor ballad with airy choruses and pained verses amid soft bass, light synth strings, Rhodes shimmer, and a wailing guitar close.

Sessions occurred in 1976 with Ralph Moss producing and engineering, assisted by Frank D’Augusta, and Daryl Hall co-producing select tracks.

Patrick Adams arranged the string and horn charts.

Discography: