Soap and Water

As a member of southern California’s Green on Red in the 1980s and now as a singer-songwriter with an ever-expanding solo career, Chuck Prophet continues to mine and refine the subtle terrain of post-Dylan, alt.country songwriting. His voice has always delivered the wry, amused but doomed scenario that goes along with the details (“Happy Ending”). His guitar tones are dirty and bluesy, his tempos stick to a comforting lope, and he can’t hide his verbose, beatnik tendencies, even with a premature fade (“Downtime”). Prophet’s the guy at the end of the bar who isn’t likely to get off his seat for anyone, but draw yourself closer and the tall tales twinkle. “Freckle Song” begins things with a one-chord stompfest, while “I Can Feel Your Heartbeat” breaks out into full-color pop. “Naked Ray” offers a ballad with a few scattershot memories, while “A Woman’s Voice” admits, “a woman’s voice can drug you, like an AM radio, like a motorcycle preacher, like a Sunday far from home.” It’s these simple, odd observations that suddenly jut out and make you take notice.

Much like his work with seminal L.A. band Green on Red, Chuck Prophet's first new album in three years, Soap and Water, defies categorization. Soap and Water moves deftly from Americana and rock to R&B, molding styles at will. A true renaissance rocker, Prophet is a writer, producer and musician who helped define Los Angeles' Paisley Underground scene and open the door for alt.country's rise to prominence in the 1990s. Prophet's dark undercurrents and mythic persona have coupled with his seat-of-the-pants creative philosophy to make him one of the most sought-after songwriters in music today. He's laid down sessions with Warren Zevon, had his songs recorded by Solomon Burke and produced/written for Kelly Willis, yet Prophet is at his most potently distilled when writing and recording for his solo projects. "When I get some kind of inspirational virus, I follow it through to its conclusion." In the case of Chuck Prophet, it's the Soap and Water that's contagious.

Chuck Prophet began his musical career with the genre-defying group Green on Red, and since their demise, the now solo singer/songwriter/producer continues to duck all attempts at categorization.