Celebrated Bay Area songwriter Chuck Prophet plays Valentine's show at the Chapel
Beloved SF raconteur and guitarist Chuck Prophet plays a special Valentine's set of songs backed by a string quartet at the Chapel Friday night.
Born in the Southern California town of Whittier and raised the Bay Area suburbs, Prophet first came to fame in the mid-1980s after joining the country-influenced neo-psychedelic band Green On Red when the group relocated to Los Angeles from Tuscon, Arizona. The band would record it's landmark Enigma Records effort Gas Food Lodging, earning the group accolades in the U.S. and Europe and a major label deal with Mercury.
While the band continued to receive critical acclaim for the vivid character studies and rootsy country psychedelia heard on 1987's The Killer Inside Me and Stones-flavored Here Come the Snakes two years later, by 1992 the group had called it quits. That freed Prophet up to pursue his solo songwriting career that he started with his first recording Brother Aldo in 1990.
Mixing modern lo-fi sensibilities with his storytelling songs and swampy roots influences, Prophet released a string of celebrated albums during the 1990s including the semi-autobiographical Homemade Blood and the clanking, Tom Waits-tinged The Hurting Business. The songwriter's contemporaries took notice of his skills as a tunesmith, with the likes of Texas punk-roots singer Alejandro Escovedo, rock band Heart and blues great Solomon Burke covering his songs.
Early in the 2000s, Prophet convened the first line-up of his backing band the Mission Express, a crew that drew on some of the finest players in the city. The songwriter continued his solid hitting streak, releasing more critically lauded albums such as the eclectic Soap and Water in 2007 and his more recent triumphs like the historical San Francisco travelogue Temple Beautiful in 2012 and the character-driven Night Surfer two years later.
The gifted guitarist released his acclaimed effort Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins on Yep Roc Records in 2017, earning another round of ecstatic reviews. Self-described by Prophet as "California noir," the songs on the collection ruminate on mortality whether lamenting SFPD officer-involved shooting victim "Alex Nieto" or paying respects to David Bowie and other passed legends on "Bad Year For Rock And Roll."
While his most recent recording for Yep Rock -- entitled The Land That Time Forgot -- came out in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Prophet has maintained a steady pace of activity with online and in-person concerts showcasing the evocative new tunes including the wistful lament "High As Johnny Thunders" and the pointed salvo directed at former President Trump, "Get Off the Stage."
Prophet has also been performing as part of the Casual Coalition, a collective of Bay Area all-stars including members of Mother Hips, Phil Lesh & Friends and Stu Allen and the Mars Hotel playing music from Bob Dylan's landmark late '60s recordings with the Band that eventually saw partial release in 1975 as The Basement Tapes. The ensemble appeared at the Huichica Music Festival in 2019 and has reconvened for a number of local performances since.
Prophet made a sobering announcement last year when he confirmed that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma and was undergoing treatment. While the diagnosis forced the singer to cancel a number of shows, he returned to the live stage this past summer, delivering the kind of performances that have made him a Northern California institution. Late last year, Prophet and the Mission Express also released their first proper live document, a fiery 2LP recording of a concert in Paris showcasing the songwriter's later work that was originally only available as a CD sold on tour in Europe.
This past October, the songwriter released a new album for Yep Rock that stands as a major stylistic departure: a collaboration with cumbia group ¿Qiensave? entitled Wake the Dead. Formed from jam sessions with the group in their hometown of Salinas during his lymphoma recovery, the songs heard on Wake the Dead run the gamut from sharp social commentary ("In the Shadows (For Elon)" and "Sally Was a Cop") to Prophet's trademark vivid, character-driven tales of loss and redemption ("Sugar into Water" and "First Came the Thunder"), closing with the heartfelt celebrations of survival "It's a Good Day to Be Alive." Recorded live with ¿Qiensave? and augmented by members of the Mission Express the album has earned the songwriter some of the best reviews of his illustrious career. The songwriter showcased the tunes with his new ensemble the Cumbia Shoes for a sold-out show at the Chapel late last year.
For this special Valentine's Day show, Prophet and a stripped-down trio featuring his wife and longtime bandmate Stephanie Finch (vocals/keyboards) and drummer Vincente Rodriguez reprise their live collaboration with the Make Out Quartet for the second year in a row. Prophet revisited songs from The Land That Time Forgot in 2021, featuring the same string section on a live EP that was recorded and filmed at SF Mission District bar the Make Out Room.
The Friday show at the Chapel with Prophet performing a career spanning set with the same trio plus strings format, putting a cinematic twist on some of his greatest hits before he and his band head across the Atlantic for a UK tour. The group will also be playing a seated sold-out show on Saturday night at the HopMonk Tavern in Novato.
Chuck Prophet and the Make Out Quartet
Friday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m., $35
The Chapel
