Poetic Justice

For most of his career, Chuck Prophet’s music has been hard to define in generic terms. He may have started out as one of the pioneers of roots rock, but from around 1999, he began expanding his palette (notably with the LP The Hurting Business, which featured loops and samples) and the 25 years since have found him following wherever his wayward muses have led. This included in around 2009 a trip to Mexico City to record a series of snapshots of the United States from a skewed vantage point. The result was a set of what he called “political songs for non-political people” [album – ¡Let Freedom Ring!].

Even those who have followed his career closely however could not have anticipated the sharp left turn that Wake the Dead represents. Digging deep (in that singular way only obsessive-creatives can), Prophet has explored the traditions of Cumbia music as a student and practitioner, eventually crafting eleven songs for release on this new album. Eight of them are co-writes with regular collaborator Kurt Lipschutz (aka klipschutz), others the fruits of labours with friends Kim Richey and Aaron Lee Tasjan and long-term guitarist James DePrato from Chuck’s Mission Express band.

The defining feature here is the groove. Some of this, for sure, is down to the musical energy of Prophet’s collaborators, the Cumbia Urbana group ¿Qiensave?, but there is also something inescapably “Prophetic” in what has been caught on tape. I remember one time talking guitarists with Chuck and he namechecked Ry Cooder but it wasn’t Ry’s much-feted skill as a slide maestro that was on his mind; rather, it was his gifts as a rhythm guitarist. I never listened to Cooder’s music the same way again. The anecdote is also revealing about Prophet’s own musicality – those who have seen him on stage will be familiar with it: a man in constant motion, locking in with and playing off the rhythm section, wherever the melodic lines lead.

No surprise, then, that there is nothing remotely forced or inauthentic about the way Prophet and ¿Qiensave? have found a shared groove, all produced with a vivid live in the studio feel by Chuck and regular production partners Matt Winegar and Brad Jones. The instrumental scope is a delight – accordion, maracas, timbale, bajo sexto and more – but at the same time it’s telling that the one track that features long-time Mission Express bassist Kevin T. White (who recently left the band after a 20-year tenure) sits very comfortably in this collection. “Sally Was a Cop”, co-written with Alejandro Escovedo and previously released on Escovedo’s Big Station album in 2012, reminds us that, rhythm guitar be damned, Chuck can still crank out astonishing solos. The song has emerged naturally as a centrepiece of the set on recent US and European tours by Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes (a fearsome hybrid of the Mission Express and ¿Qiensave?). A word to the wise: the roadshow picks up again mid-January 2025, crisscrossing the US before hitting the UK. Don’t miss it.

Prophet has spoken in interviews about the circumstances surrounding the writing and recording of the album – his cancer diagnosis and his recovery. And the album dances between the shadows of mortality and the light of the joy of living, from the opening title track to the closer, “It’s a Good Day to Be Alive”, a beautiful heart on sleeve love song for his long-time musical and life-partner Stephanie Finch (who, naturally, sings a gorgeous harmony).

Which brings me back to ¡Let Freedom Ring!, an album which incidentally nodded to its Latin roots via the same inverted punctuation as ¿Qiensave? The politics may not be as upfront on Wake the Dead as it was back then, but Prophet and klipschutz have always known what time it is (their excoriating ode to Trump from five years ago, “Get Off the Stage”, today strikes a chilling thirteen). Still, no-one will be able to ignore the sly, slinky vocal and irresistible rhythms of “Sugar Into Water” with its unintelligible politicians “drinking in the clubhouse” or the stinging “In the Shadows” – dedicated to an Elon Musk pictured waking up alone “in his mansion like a tomb”.

Not only did that 2009 collection feature a close cousin of Wake The Dead’s “Give The Boy a Kiss” – “You And Me Baby (Holding On)” also stars a sceptical medical professional marvelling at what might be a ghost or a resurrection – but Let Freedom Ring also closes with a song for Stephanie, the gorgeous “Leave The Window Open”. What Chuck has given his listeners most poignantly with Wake the Dead’s epilogue, but remarkably across the whole album, is a celebration of the simplest and most precious joys of day-to-day living. And, by the way, he’s also gifted us his most danceable collection of music ever. As one of Chuck’s musical totems Brinsley Schwartz once sang – surrender to the rhythm.

Stevie Simkin

Stevie Simkin has published books about early modern theatre, screen violence and censorship, and popular music. His most recent book was a biography of Chuck Prophet, What Makes the Monkey Dance (Jawbone Press, 2020). He studied for his MA and PhD at St. Andrews University and he has taught in the university sector since 1991, currently at the University of Winchester where he has taught on the Drama, English, Film and Creative Writing degrees and currently the Acting course. He is a part-time singer-songwriter and musician and regularly performs at local venues.

WAKE THE DEAD (BANDCAMP)
WAKE THE DEAD (UK)
WAKE THE DEAD (US)

WHAT MAKES THE MONKEY DANCE (UK)
WHAT MAKES THE MONKEY DANCE (US)

POETIC JUSTICE: LIKE 4 MORE CONTENT

Label: Yep Roc
Release Date: 25 OCT 2024