SAN DIEGO — How many wonderfully memorable moments were created during Shemekia Copeland’s sold-out Saturday show at Humphreys Backstage Live, the latest installment in the San Diego venue’s monthly Gourmet Blues Concert Series?

So many that it is a challenge to single out just one or two, let alone include them all in a single review of this electrifying blues, soul, gospel and rock vocal dynamo, who is nominated in three categories for the 2025 Grammy Awards.

A New York native who now resides in the northern San Diego County city of Oceanside, Copeland sizzled and soared throughout her 14-song set. It served as a galvanizing celebration of blues, soul, gospel and the other timeless American music styles at which she excels.

The concert concluded with the romping “It’s 2 a.m.,” a standout number from her second album, 2000’s “Wicked.” It was one of several numbers to feature energetic call-and-response vocal exchanges with her audience.

The show opened with back-to-back readings of the biting “Broken High Heels” and the resiliency-championing “Tough Mother,” two of the six songs Copeland featured from her triple-Grammy-nominated “Blame It On Eve.”

“I’ve been nominated before,” said the charismatic singer, who now has seven career Grammy nominations to her credit. “But they’ve never given me one.”

“You’re gonna win!” yelled out a male audience member. This prompted a grinning Copeland to retort: “Bald-headed white men are my thing!” She then quipped to another male attendee: “You got too much hair!”

Joking aside, the winning quality of Copeland’s audacious new album suggests her Grammy record could soon change for the better when the annual awards fete is held Feb. 2 in Los Angeles. In the meantime, music fans here would be wise to get tickets for her Feb. 23 Poway Performing Arts Center concert — a double-bill with gospel-music legends the Blind Boys of Alabama — while seats are still available.

On Saturday, Copeland was equally winning whether singing or chatting with her increasingly enthusiastic audience. Her concert was a fuss-free masterclass in the art of performance, expertly crafted to achieve maximum musical impact and emotional resonance. The results were earthy and eloquent, rousing and reflective, heartfelt and heavenly, boisterous and bawdy, sometimes in rapid succession.

The fire, finesse, passion and pinpoint dynamic control with which she performed was matched by her terrific five-man band. All but one of its members have been collaborating with Copeland for decades, not mere years, and the cohesion, sensitivity and respect they demonstrated for her and the music was palpable.

Especially notable was how well her three guitarists — Willie Scandlyn, Arthur Neilson and newcomer Carey Samsel — performed together as a unit. Rather than cluttering things up by playing over each other, they served the music at hand with taste and skill. Their solos elevated the music without detracting from it or Copeland, whose selection of songs admirably covered a range of moods and topics.

The bluesy shuffle “Wine O’Clock” is a spirited ode to cutting loose, while “Clotida’s On Fire” — whose melody and groove recall the 1972 song “Wishing Well” by the English band Free — offers a chilling depiction of the horrors perpetrated in the mid-1800s aboard the Clodita, the last known ship to transport enslaved Africans to the United States.

“Blame It On Eve,” the superb title track from Copeland’s most recent album, powerfully tackles everything from original sin and gender inequality to a woman’s right to choose. While Copeland did not write the lyrics of this Grammy-nominated song, on Saturday she owned every word of it through her sheer force of conviction.

“I’ve never had a problem with singing what’s on my mind,” she said after “Blame It On Eve” concluded. “It doesn’t make you popular, but I’m happy with myself.”

Later, she playfully added: “I am unapologetically myself. I wear white after Labor Day just to (tick) people off!” She also spoke both fondly and impishly about her husband, Brian, who engaged in some good-natured banter with her from his seat at the rear of the venue.

After performing the Rolling Stones-flavored “Cadillac Blue,” a song inspired by her husband’s eye color — which they disagreed on — Copeland offered a concise, 14-word description of herself. “I’m a blues singer, a mother, a wife and a DJ on Sirius XM.”

Introducing “Walk Until I Ride,” her gospel-fueled 2020 song of pride and affirmation in the face of discrimination, she alluded to both her status as an Oceanside resident of four years — “You all are stuck with me!” — and to her now being cancer-free for three years.

She smilingly noted that her grade-school age son, Johnny (who was also present) got in trouble at school for teaching his fellow students the lyrics to her high-octane gospel song, “Tell the Devil (He Can Go to Hell).” She then performed it with enough soul-shaking vigor to nearly raise the roof off Humphreys Backstage Live.

For new and longtime fans alike, two of Saturday’s other high points came with “Beat Up Old Guitar” and “Ghetto Child.”

Both were written by Copeland’s late father, Texas-bred blues great Johnny Copeland. Both were also high points of her 2003 debut at Humphreys’ nearby outdoor concert venue, where her performance was so incandescent she became one of the few opening acts in that venue’s history to earn an encore.

Her performance of both songs Saturday was just as enthralling, especially when Copeland sang several verses without a microphone and easily filled the room with her mighty voice. Here’s hoping her appearances at Humphreys will soon be annual events.

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