Your Country's Right Here: Chuck Prophet Discovers a "Magical Place"
posted in: Country • Features
Chuck Prophet didn’t set out to pay homage to San Francisco.
When he first started writing for his latest album, his style was more in the flavor of Leonard Cohen. That changed as he kept writing and discovered he had the makings of an album about the City on the Bay.
When [my co-writer, San Francisco-based poet klipschutz and I] realized that, we got excited and started talking about [baseball great] Willie May, the Dead Kennedy’s and all the things about San Francisco and how they overlap, he said of the songs that filled his latest album Temple Beautiful. The excitement for me kept growing. Growing up in Orange County [California] and coming here was fun because I hadn’t been exposed to much of the culture.
Those positive vibes are shared by fans of both Prophet and the city as evidenced by a sold-out, one night only Temple Beautiful San Francisco Bus tour that Prophet used to kick off his current US tour.
Although ideas for the album were plentiful, Prophet said the project presented challenges.
Believe it or not the hardest part [was] resisting the temptation to make it more musical, he said. I wanted to hear the hooks, a big fat back beat and it was hard to strip that stuff away.
Not that Prophet”who has worked with artists from Kelly Willis to Lucinda Williams and Aimee Mann”is into heavy production. Prophet made his name with his distinctive voice and his guitar chops, notable during his eight years with country rock band Green on Red that the New York Times called By far one of the best bands in the United States for almost an entire decade.
Not that Prophet subscribes to a strict writing method as many do today. His process, like his adopted city, is more casual and free flowing.
I don’t wake up and say ˜I wrote a song last night,’ he said. That stuff eventually kind of floats to the top on its own¦[I like to go into the studio with other musicians] and say ˜Hey, everybody, relax and play what you want to play. At the same time, though, I’m studying everybody seeing what they are reacting to.
Perhaps the songs for Prophet’s album came together because of something akin to the positive karma he felt, recording in the same studio where alt-country royalty Alejandro Escovedo recorded his 2008 album Real Animal to which Prophet contributed.
I was very happy to be there, said Prophet. I felt like that’s a lucky place, a magical place.
Find out more about his music and upcoming tour dates on his Web site.