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Press
The Village Voice - 10/02/07

HARP Magazine - November, 2007
****
Pure, guileless rock abandon.

Chuck Prophet's genius lies in assimilating a wide variety of genres into his essentially Stonesy architecture ahead of the standard curve. From the seminal '80s alt-country shimmer of Green on Red to his incredibly diverse solo sonic quilt - early Americana rocker/mid-period electronic folkie/latter-day style hybridist - Prophet has engagingly exemplified his surname. On Soap and Water, his Yep Roc debut, Prophet continues to defy easy categorization, seamlessly weaving together his myriad roles: chunky rocker ("Freckle Song"), sensitive pop balladeer ("Would You Love Me"), sonic dabbler ("Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You)"). For his considerable talents as performer/arranger/stylist, the ribbon that neatly ties the package is Prophet's lyrical gift, as his beat story-songs pulse with novelistic detail, noirish humor and poetic ambiguity and bristle with pure, guileless rock abandon. Originality is not easy in the derivative rock world but Chuck Prophet has blazed genre trails for over two decades with no signs of running out of inspiration or desire.
--Fred Mills

The Village Voice - October 2nd, 2007

Smart-ass rocker crafts another No.1 Record

Every aspiring guitarist who taped a copy of Big Star's Radio City went on to start his own band. That's conventional wisdom, but what about the misfits who scrounged a burn of Alex Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert or treasured a bootleg LP of his late-'70s Elektra demos? On Soap and Water, former Green on Red guitarist Chuck Prophet answers that question. It's a catchy, accurate recasting of Chilton's terrified insouciance and sickening pop modulations, and if it occasionally descends into pastiche, it scrubs behind Chilton's ears with a loving touch. Prophet might not sing as snidely as the Memphian did on such numbers as Sherbert's "Hey! Little Child" (referenced here on "Heart Beat"), but he adds complaisant female vocals to an ingenious series of mocking guitar moves.
"Down Time" rocks along in the jaunty manner of the Sir Douglas Quintet's "She's About a Mover" and fades before it has time to gather momentum. Intelligent enough to take pleasure in the basics but too impatient to stick with anything for very long, Prophet sounds like the kind of smart-ass who doesn't worry about earning your respect. This means he gets away with lines like "The women threw their panties/And the women threw their bras/Elvis hung his head/And said, 'They'll forget me when I'm gone.' " He affects wisdom on "Small Town," a gorgeous meditation on big-city temptations—specifically, Prophet doesn't want anyone to mess with his sister, who leaves town with only "a Realistic stereo and a phone that doesn't ring" for evidence. Best of all is the title track, a two-chord stomp that finds Prophet trafficking in the cheap oppositions big brother Alex perfected 30 years ago. "Dry hump/Wet nurse/Loose change/Tight purse," he sings, sounding like a man who wears clean underwear but is scared to change his dirty socks.
-- Edd Hurt

Entertainment Weekly.com - 09/27/07

Chuck Prophet soaks up the Stonesy vibe on his excellent new CD Soap and Water

Though the guitarist's narco-blasted days in indie-rock band Green on Red are long behind him, there's still something elegantly and acerbically wasted about Chuck Prophet. This collection of roots rock is Stonesy loose, which is also to say that it's Stonesy tight. The lumbering ''A Woman's Voice'' aside, Soap and Water's tracks impress ‹ from the sex-drenched ''Freckle Song'' to ''Let's Do Something Wrong,'' where his Tom Petty-ish vocals are puckishly augmented by a kids' choir on the lyrics ''Let's do something wrong/Let's do something stupid.'' A-
-- Clark Collis

Manchester Evening News - 09/27/07

→Why all is this Prophet of doom, Chuck?

IT has been three years since his last album, Age Of Miracles, but Chuck Prophet hasn't exactly been sitting around.
For one thing, there's his own new album, possibly his best, called Soap And Water.
He has also produced a new album from Kelly Willis ("We jumped off some cliffs together!"), reformed and toured Europe with his former band Green On Red, collaborated with Alejandro Escovedo an a new album, made his big screen acting debut in a film called Revolution Summer, and worked on the soundtrack of the Sundance Film Festival hit, Teeth.
Surprisingly, then, Chuck talks of a "crisis of faith" after Age Of Miracles.
"We toured for a month too long with that record," he contends. His current touring band, though, which he'll be bringing to Club Academy this weekend, is, he enthuses, "lighter on their feet than any band I've worked with before".

→Surprised

Speaking of which, a lot of people were surprised when alt-country rockers Green On Red reformed a few months back "It took us by surprise too," he laughs.
"I suppose we did it as a kind of dare, but I was surprised, I think we all were, at the ease with which it came together. Might we do it again? I wouldn't be against it at all."
The project with Alejandro Escovedo also "just sort of happened. He asked me down one weekend to try writing some songs together and we've ended up writing a whole record.
"It's sort of like our joint musical biography. There's a lot of real characters in there."
--Kevin Bourke

Q - October, 2007
****
80'S ROOTS-ROCK SURVIVOR NOW HITTING HIS PEAK.

A decade ago, it looked like Chuck Prophet was finished. The former golden boy of seminal American alt-country, retro-rock stars Green On Red was hooked on crack and unravelling fast. Now, fully detoxed, Prophet has just made his acting debut in the cult movie Revolution Summer, and with his eighth solo album turned in the best work of his career. The rockier songs are reminiscent of late-'80s Rolling Stones and new wave-era Tom Petty. But best of all is Would You Love Me?, the most elegiac country-rock ballad since Ryan Adams's Gold.
--Paul Elliott

Maverick - September, 2007
****
Carving an independent path through country, soul and rock

The eighth solo studio album from Californian singer, songwriter and guitarist Chuck Prophet oozes character and confidence. Prophet's delectable guitar work and world-weary but sharply expressive vocals, along with backing from his own outfit the Mission Express and guests the Spinto Band, ensure that these tracks are packed with rich, flavoursome detail. Brad Jone's intelligent production has brought a dustily textured finish to the album; this brooding, sun baked sound is the perfect compliment to Prophet's casually memorable way with words. But despite an overriding sense of direction and coherence, SOAP AND WATER never once threatens to fall back on basic sylistic similarity to keep its twelve tracks knitted together. Each song brings with it a genuine feeling of discovery, from the witty, infectious country-rock opener Freckle Song with it's irresistible twang and punchy rhythm section, to Happy Ending, a subtly shaded and atmospheric rootsy number that provides a gently philosophical conclusion.
The most innovative moment of all comes with All Over You, a sublime blend of heady dance beats and earthy guitar-based Americana. Led by Prophet's captivating vocals - nonchalant one minute, exhilarating the next - it layers into the mix a bewildering number of additional ingredients, from ominous strings and twinkly percussive effects to the improbably successful use of a children's church choir. There is simplicity too; in the form of the dreamy, sinuous ballad Would You Love Me, and its delicate arrangement featuring distant, angelic backing voices and haunting, understated farmonica. A dryly effective female guest vocalist joins Prophet to exchange the clever lyrics of Soap an Water, an angular blues-rock foot-tapper, while taut blues rhythms also form the basis of the intricate but exuberant Down Time, a hugely enjoyable paean to getting away from it all. 'A woman's voice can drug you like an AM radio/Like a motorcycle preacher/Like a Sunday far from home', these vocals warn Prophet on A Woman's Voice, at times tapping into a near Dylan-esque drawl, The song's effect is hypnotic, driven by a smouldering slide guitar groove, and its strolling pace builds to a euphoric, bluesy sing-along chorus.
Chuck Prophet's last solo album may have appeared three years ago - he has since toured Europe with a revived incarnation of his former band Green On Red, collaborated with Kelly Willis and made his cinematic acting debut - but the wait has proved worthwhile. Charming, fiercely imaginative and brilliantly executed, this is contemporary roots-rock of the highest quality. A European tour is planned in support of SOAP AND WATER during September and October, which will surely demonstrate the vitality of these songs in a live setting.
--HC

Uncut - October, 2007
****
San Francisco-based songwriter on killer form

Back from the Green On Red reuinion and studio time with Kelly Willis and Alejandro Escovedo, Prophet has been the much in demand lately. But having long dropped the sub-Dylanisms of his early work, its his solo career thats thriving. Soap And Water is his most satisfying album yet. The range of styles is impressive, from the pale hip hop of Something Stupid to the title tracks murky Southern funk and the swamp-blues of A Womans Voice. But he does the fucked-up ballad thing expertly, too, even drafting in a childrens Christian choir for Would You Love Me.

Mojo - October, 2007
****
The San Franciscan guitar slinger's persuasive eighth solo album.

Plucked from Berkeley obsurity in the mid-'80s by psychedelic cowboys Green On Red, Chuck Prophet was always a gifted rapier to lead singer Dan Stuart's yeoman bludgeon. His Richard Thompson-indebted Telecaster squalls have subsequently decorated a litany of creditable solo albums of which this latest may well be the finest. Recorded in Nashville with innumerable guests, Soap And Water runs the gamut of Prophet's influences, from Bob Dylan (Naked Ray) to Alex Chilton (Let's Do Something Wrong) and the Stones (Soap And Water), all of it delievered with a quixotic swagger and Prophet's declamatory sneer of a voice. His quicksilver fretwork still impresses - especially on the Television-like stomper Freckle Song, though the stand-out track is the burnished, redemptive ballad Would You Love Me, replete with a Methodist children's choir and a counterpoint melody that could melt the stoniest heart.
--David Sheppard

Irish Times - 08/31/07
*****
Even in this iPod era, albums can be journeys of discovery. When I started out on Soap and Water I was armed with a huge admiration for San Francisco-based guitarist and songwriter Chuck Prophet, his work with seminal alt. everything band Green on Red, and his large body of solo work. Soap and Water, however, seemed cloaked in obscurity and the music was oddly rootless. A few dozen plays later and there is not a track I'd change - though I might argue a backing vocal here or a guitar lick there. This is a monumental album of constant surprise, chilled intelligence and quietly assured song writing skill, singing, playing and production. Prophet has said it was inspired by wayward rock icon Alex Chilton, but I also hear Randy Newman's caustic amusement at the human condition, especially on the epic New Kingdom. Wonderful, but time is required.
--Joe Breen

This is the place to go for the official skinny: My Official Website

Chuck blogs here at The Brink with loads of pic's and musings...

His emails are all aptly signed with the Mark Twain quote, “As soon as you realize it’s all insane, it all makes sense”. In an industry filled with heroin-shaped prima donnas and blood-leeching businessmen, Chuck Prophet is a thorn tree. He’s a thorn tree in the gardens of a game that he’s played and that’s played him, ultimately refusing to give up on what makes him breathe: rock and roll.

Chuck Prophet’s career in music began much like the careers of others. He was a kid with a guitar. Here’s the difference: By the time he was fifteen years old he could do more with it than most would be able to do in a lifetime. Legendary producer and musician Jim Dickinson (The Rolling Stones, The Replacements, Big Star, Bob Dylan) was once asked how this kid could pull off the stuff he did. Dickinson simply replied, “What do you expect from somebody who got his cherry popped at the funny farm when he was fourteen?”

His first endeavor away from his sleepy hometown of Whittier, California was straight to the absurdity that is San Francisco. He almost immediately joined the seminal cosmic country rock band Green On Red and spent 8 years and as many albums playing and touring with them. Once called by the New York Times “By far one of the best bands in the United States for almost an entire decade,” he spent his youth touring Europe and the US; watching himself grow up on the road. Trial by fire? Horse shit. He could play and sing and write like a musical time bomb and he kept himself alive long enough to find crack cocaine, the drug that finally brought him to his knees ten years ago. He’s been clean ever since. They say ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ but one can’t be so sure when measuring Chuck’s manic activities. He was saved from addiction but he’s far from being saved from himself.

You want stories? They’re everywhere. Chuck, over ten years ago, once jumped from one San Francisco rooftop onto another and fell three stories through a skylight onto the cement floor of a mechanic’s garage; all in an attempt to impress a girl and get into his apartment (that he had locked himself out of). He was high. The stories are endless. His long-suffering wife and musical partner Stephanie Finch can assure any disbeliever of that. You get clean and you cut it out, right? Nah. Chuck simply tells me, “I don’t want to embarrass my parents anymore than I already have.” The recording of Chuck’s latest record has incurred him a smashed car windshield and, at last count, 27 parking tickets, to which he simply states, "I know I'm in the throes of a new record when I can't remember where I parked my car."

He can’t get it right. Chuck, in his Green On Red days was often called, in quotation marks, Billy The Kid. He signed to New West records in 2002. Then, two albums into a five album deal, he found himself dropped in August 2006. How does Chuck feel about it. Who knows? He’s no Ryan Adams. Mike Lembo, Chuck’s manager from 1995 through 2000 stole all of Chuck’s publishing rights from underneath him. To add nothing but insult to injury Lembo threw away all of Chuck’s master recordings. Chuck eventually got his publishing rights back. How does he feel about the whole thing? Broken glass and cement floors hurt much worse. So what did hurt? Mike made Chuck lie about his age, forever keeping him several years behind. In talking to Chuck you can tell it’s not the “making” him do it that bothered him so much, it’s that he went along with it. Chuck Prophet is 43 years old. There, now you know. But anyone who's been around him can assure you, he's still a fucking kid.

Chuck’s encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll and The American Songbook at large is weighty and impressive. He’s not a student, though. He tells me he, “doesn’t understand why people are so down on Dylan’s eighties records” with heart. He’s not drawn to the stories and music because of any intellectual need to know; he’s drawn to it like a moth to flame, like a razor to the vein. He can’t live without it and has never quite figured out how to live within it. He does, though. He wrestles the demons that have pursued him since he was a kid and he brilliantly strangles his guitar in protest, sings his own repentances, and writes like a man who, like William Faulkner suggested, should “only seek to outdo (himself)”.

His fans within the music community are vast. Lucinda Williams, after hearing his 2002 release “No Other Love” immediately looked at Peter Jespersen and asked, “Can I take him on tour with me?” He joined Lucinda’s tour for the final two months, struggling to keep up with her bus in his 1988 Dodge Ram with over 250k miles, playing sold-out houses and even Central Park. On one fateful night he was served papers. He was served papers, onstage. Prophet’s take on the matter, “Tommy Stinson may or may not be the living embodiment of rock and roll as Jim Dickinson claimed, but at that moment I was up there.” He means so well, but he can’t help but embarrass his folks a bit.

He’s written songs with Dan Penn and innumerable others, has been recently writing with Alejandro Escovedo, produced the most recent Kelly Willis record (who once said “If I could sing like anybody I’d like to sing like Chuck Prophet” – in response Chuck almost blushingly says “I’ll have to straighten her out on that one”), and has had his songs recorded by the likes of Solomon Burke, Kim Richey, Jim Dickinson, and even Heart. He’s played on the recordings of Warren Zevon, Jonathan Richman, Cake, Bob Neuwirth, Penelope Houston, Kelly Willis, and many others. In writing on what he was currently listening to in 2004, Stephen King (that’s right, Stephen King), wrote of Chuck’s tune “Rise”: "What does this song mean? I have no idea. But it's lovely, incantatory and mysterious. God bless Chuck Prophet." Yes sir, God bless him indeed.

With seven previous solo records in twice as many years, his last being the brilliant “Age Of Miracles” in 2004, Chuck’s new album, “Soap and Water”, is objectively his best. Of course, you’re not supposed to “objectively” make claims such as this, but it is. Why? Because, like Seth Morgan writes, Chuck’s been jailin’. He’s learned to sleep when others couldn’t and in the process has written what others can’t. “When I return from those European tours, I resist adjusting my body clock as long as possible. I get a cheap thrill watching the sun come up on my kitchen table while I’m working on songs... Hey, it works for the monks!”

In “Would You Love Me?”, he sings: “Sittin’ in a movie and I’m staring at a screen, they’re dragging Jesus from the town, it don’t look good to me, Well if I had a bucket, or better yet a spoon, I go down to that river baby, I’d bring that river home to you.” In “Happy Ending”, he cries, “I memorized my favorite scenes, all the lines come right to me, and now the tears are really mine, the moon is just another lie, Winners lose, heroes fall, it don’t make no sense at all.” On the title track, atop the shrill of the farfisa organs and single coil guitars -- a kind of Jackson meets Fight Club -- the sweet and sour, hi-heel sneakers, pink boxing gloves showdown of a duet. Couple tension has never sounded like so much fun. John Travolta and Olivia on crack? Nah! just too many years touring in vans. Chuck has said that in many ways this album pays homage to Alex Chilton. Once at a concert before performing a Chilton song, Chuck said, “When I first heard Alex Chilton I wanted to BE Alex Chilton. No, fuck that, I wanted to make it with him.” Alex has found and lost himself repeatedly over the years, but he’s never stopped being Alex Chilton. Neither has Chuck, and in his own words Chuck says of “Soap and Water”, “People start making records to flatter themselves. I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m just now getting good.” He’s right and at the same time so terribly wrong. He’s always been good, but he’s never been this brilliant. This is a record of redemption and soul; it’s got the heart of a lion and the scars of the saints. It’s filed with uneasy salvation and ultimately the thorny blood of Chuck Prophet.
-- John Murry

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