Ruth Copeland

A blues folksinger born in Durham, England, Ruth Copeland first drew notice through her marriage to Jeffrey Bowen, then a staff producer at Motown. When Bowen moved with songwriters Holland-Dozier-Holland to their new Invictus imprint in 1970, she ranked among his earliest signings and entered the newly formed vocal group New Play, becoming the label’s initial white artist.

Working alongside Edith Wayne and future P-Funk producer Ron Dunbar, Copeland co-authored “Music Box,” New Play’s debut single and only the second release on Invictus. The group dissolved shortly afterward, prompting her to map out a solo path. At the same time she formed an unexpected alliance with George Clinton that exerted considerable influence on Parliament’s 1971 debut album Osmium. Beyond co-producing the sessions, she supplied two of the most eccentric and least funky tracks in the band’s catalog, the eerie “Little Old Country Boy” and “The Silent Boatman.” Two additional numbers, “Come In Out of the Rain” (co-written with Clinton) and “Breakdown” (co-written with Clinton and Clyde Wilson), surfaced as Parliament singles across 1971 and 1972.

That partnership with Clinton carried directly into her own recordings. Her debut album Self Portrait, now regarded as a near counterpart to Osmium, included playing from Eddie Hazel, Lucius Ross, Bernie Worrell, Billy “Bass” Nelson, Tiki Fulwood, and Clinton himself, along with fresh versions of the expansive “The Silent Boatman.”

Copeland’s follow-up, I Am What I Am, arrived in late 1971 and was tracked with many of the same musicians, now operating as her permanent band. In a curious development, Hazel, Worrell, Fulwood, and Nelson had already departed Parliament/Funkadelic yet stayed together to support Copeland both in the studio and on the road. The concerts proved strong, with receptive crowds, yet friction soon surfaced. While opening for Sly Stone she began billing the musicians as Funkadelic, a practice that irritated the headliner. The breaking point arrived when she granted them one of her encores; Stone demanded she either exit the tour or dismiss the band, and she relinquished the musicians.

After enjoying solo visibility in 1971 and 1972, Copeland receded from view. A brief return came in 1976 with the album Take Me to Baltimore, yet it made scant impression and she again withdrew from prominence.