Chuck Prophet – ‘The Land Time Forgot’ (Yep Roc Records)

Chuck Prophet – ‘The Land Time Forgot’ (Yep Roc Records)

‘The Land That Time Forgot’  Was written for the most part with Prophets longtime co-conspirator,  but after the initial splurge of nailing three tracks in San Fran with Grammy-winning alchemist Matt Winegar, Prophet confesses,

“We hit a wall. Schedules. Money. Towed vehicles: a thousand large to get one van out of lockup.” So the San Fran troubadour returns with his new album varying from the rich heartland rock of songs like ‘Best Shirt On’, to the drum machine driven  ‘Marathon’ and all the way back to stripped back words and guitar of ‘Nixonland’ and ‘Get Off the Stage’, Prophet’s work has always been sublime from his days as the perfect foil for Dan Stuart in the magnificent Green On Red to the roots folk and Americana of his early solo career. Chuck Prophet is a rock and roll star a real gunslinger of the six-string variety in a world that needs rock and roll stars and songwriters that just ooze class and quality.

There’s something quite beautiful about the track  ‘Paying My Respects To The Train’, Turn the record player up loud, sit back,  close one’s eyes and let Chuck pour some good times into my stereo speakers with that mellow baritone croon as he start singing and his stories paint a thousand pictures with the beautiful and dovetailed harmonies of his partner in crime  Stephanie Finch, that have always worked so well together on his albums from the early knockings of Brother Aldo to this like a modern-day Cash and Carter.

‘Fast Kid’ has so much going on whilst swaggering outta the speakers there’s a steady beat holding everything together over some contrasting synths and slide with some easter sounds for good measure all adding up to an incredible listen.

The acoustic ‘Love Don’t Come From The Barrel Of A Gun’ is more upbeat than it sounds whereas ‘Nixonland’ is smoldering storytelling at its very best from the snare brushes to the softly spoken words your hanging onto his every word man he could be reading the phone book and it would still be cool.

The album continues to twist and turn with the fantastic balladeering of  ‘Meet Me At The Roundabout’ and ‘Womanhood’ to the final cut of ‘Get Off The Stage’ and its autobiographical lyrics and spot-on assessment for a certain individual and another twist to complete what is a blindingly good record and I haven’t even gushed over ‘High Like Johnny Thunders’.  Let’s just say that this is an album you shouldn’t forget and one you should cherish and love as much as his previous albums, a real genuine American talent of the highest grade, just get yourself a copy and play it to death you deserve it and Chuck Prophet deserves it.

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Author: Dom Daley

Chuck Prophet – ‘Strings In The Temple’ – Temple Beautiful With Strings (Yep Roc)

Chuck Prophet – ‘Strings In The Temple’ – Temple Beautiful With Strings (Yep Roc)

“If you’re to believe what you read, today’s San Francisco is under siege by predatory tech nerds and drones, plutocrats, wiz kids and opportunistic real estate developers. People have reacted in different ways to this onslaught. The Occupy Movement for one. You may have heard of people laying down in front of google buses in protest or smashing google glasses on the sidewalk.

There’s also the path of art… In 2012, I released Temple Beautiful – an open love letter to San Francisco and its history and characters. After two years of performing the songs across the U.S and the globe, in late 2013, my band and I delivered the 12 song cycle Temple Beautiful with a string octet (scored and conducted by Brad Jones) in our hometown of San Francisco.

We had one chance to get it right. And this film is a document of the twists and turns in the road that brought us to that one-night-only sold-out performance at the Great American Music Hall (Itself a former bordello and a deco SF institution).

The songs performed that night include characters like Willie Mays, martyred supervisor Harvey Milk, Cain & Abel porn kings Jim & Artie Mitchell, mythic oddball “Red Man,” preacher/Svengali Jim Jones, politician-turned assassin Dan White, and Emperor Norton, with cameos by Laffing Sal, Carol Doda, Bill Graham, and Fatty Arbuckle. Locations also play a key role, including the Castro and Mission Districts. One song is devoted to the White Night Riots, sparked by the light sentence received by the assassination of Milk and Mayor Moscone.

Some will have you believe that technology is the new culture. Then again, how can technology equate culture? Can Rock and Roll build community? Can songs connect people to the world? These are the questions explored in Strings In The Temple.”

– Chuck Prophet

That’s the background sorted and with a new imminent studio album, ‘The Land Time Forgot’ (review very soon) the former Green on Red man is still the hot ticket and as productive as ever making music that relevant and above all bloody good. Yep Roc has made available as a digital download this epic and quite beautiful performance containing some exquisite songs and overall performance. Chuck is one of those rare talents that never turned in a bad record.  Sure some are a class apart like ‘Brother Aldo’ from his solo offerings or ‘Here Comes The Snakes’ from the old band but this is an accompanying piece for the album ‘Proper’ and with bells and whistles or should that be with strings and bells?

The title track is a honky tonkin’ Rock and Roll thing of beauty from the dirty slide guitar to the T rextasy strings and the handclaps and xylophone makes it something really special and sounds like the best of times being had by everyone and the fiddle players are really taking this home and from the generous round of applause, this audience is really witnessing something special.  In direct contrast, a pin could be heard dropping on ‘Museum Of Broken Hearts’.

 

You get to appreciate just what a talent Prophet is on records like this as he turns his hand to several styles yet always maintains the Chuck Prophet vibe and whoever rallied the troops and did the arrangments here has really elevated this set to the next level.  ‘White Night Big City’ is a cocky strut and can only be outdone by the impeccable cover of ‘Shake Some Action’ who’d have thought such an awesome Rock and Roll track would sound so cool with strings holding down the lead. Genius!

To wrap this bad boy up the softly sung balladeer that is Chuck Prophet leaves us with ‘No Other Love’ and I get lost in the moment as the strings wrap themselves around the slide guitar as Chuck hushes his lyrics the listener’s way and its not a tear in my eye just a spec of dust, honest. All that is left is the audience to give a huge round of applause before the record is done.  Simply brilliant stuff and now I can’t wait for the new studio album which is coming so very very soon.  Ladies and gentlemen get yerself some Chuck Prophet and do it now! You don’t need to take my word for it because Yup Roc has made the performance available on youtube (check it out below)

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Author: Dom Daley