$15, MUSIC AT 6:30!!!
Listen up, kids: The Green Frog is working hard to get their doors open, but in the delay we’re picking up a great show to help James out of a pickle. We are really excited to have Chuck Prophet along with The Scott Greene Band for an early show on Tuesday the 21st of February. Please help us make the trip worth their while. Rootsy rock and roll, starting at 6:30. Get at it, Bellingham.
CHUCK PROPHET
For most of his life, San Francisco has been Chuck Prophet’s muse…or more accurately, his drug of choice. “It can suck you under. That first hit. It really does a whammy to you. And if you’re like me you can find yourself chasing the San Francisco dragon for the rest of your life. That’s what the record is about.”
Named for the ill-fated rock club of the same name, Temple Beautiful was “made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco.” Roy Loney, vocalist and wildman in legendary Bay Area band The Flamin’ Groovies contributes guest vocals to the title track.
One of the driving forces behind cult heroes Green on Red and the influential L.A. Paisley Underground scene in the 1980s, Prophet’s creative mold was actually cast in San Francisco. Recalls Prophet, “Temple Beautiful is the name of a long closed rock and roll club which was between Bill Graham’s iconic Fillmore Ballroom and the tragic storefront church founded by the Reverend Jim Jones. It’s where I saw my first gigs.”
Inspired by current San Francisco artists, Prophet felt compelled to pay tribute to the history and weirdness that brought him to the city nearly 30 years ago. “There’s a kind of rock and roll psych renaissance going on in this town at the moment with bands like Thee Oh Sees, Girls, The Fresh and Onlys, Kelley Stoltz and Sonny and the Sunset’s. I’m very encouraged by all this stuff going on here.”
Part love letter and part unsentimental tour, Temple Beautiful attempts to capture San Francisco in all it’s forms: romantic port-of-call, bohemian utopia, but even more so, an often unforgiving pioneer outpost filled with the freaks and characters not welcome in America’s heartland. And musically, there is no doubt that San Francisco is one of the country’s most enduring scenes, home to decade after decade of classic artists and albums. Temple Beautiful is at once a look back at the inspirations that spawned them and the next installment in its discography.
In addition to releasing two amazing albums in Soap & Water and ¡Let Freedom Ring! over the past several years, Chuck’s music has been heard in hit television series True Blood (HBO), Californication (Showtime) and Sons of Anarchy (FX). Prophet also co- wrote all the songs on Alejandro Escovedo’s critically-acclaimed album Real Animal.
Chuck Prophet hit the road straight out of high school in the ’80s with the psychedelic roots band Green on Red and never looked back. In addition to working as a singer/songwriter, guitarist, bandleader, and musical collaborator with artists as diverse as Cake, Kim Carnes, Solomon Burke, and Alejandro Escovedo, Prophet’s deepening solo catalog of self-produced “sideways” roots rock has steadily become his calling card.
Born in the Southern California suburb of Whittier, the San Francisco-based Prophet made his debut as a solo artist in 1990 with Brother Aldo (Fire Records); one U.K. music paper called its collision of lo-fi and country “As close to the genuine article as a white boy can get.” Developing his style over the course of seven albums, including Balinese Dancer (1993) and Feast of Hearts (1995), Prophet hit his stride with his gritty meditation on suburbia, Homemade Blood (Hightone, 1997) followed by the studio-tweaked and poetic The Hurting Business (Hightone, 1998) and the streetwise epic No Other Love (New West, 2002) which sparked the radio hit “Summertime Thing” (the title track was covered by Heart). His 2004 release, Age of Miracles (New West), marries vintage with state-of-the-art studio technique while never compromising its raw roots foundation. Soap and Water (Yep Roc, 2007) barges through rock’s barriers with a helping of swamp and hip-hop. Between albums, Kelly Willis and Boz Scaggs, among others, have laid down versions of Prophet’s songs while his guitar tracks show up on recordings from Warren Zevon, Lucinda Williams, and Jewel. In 2005-2006, Green on Red reunited for a series of shows. Prophet continued to perform as a solo artist and with his band, the Mission Express, featuring his wife Stephanie Finch, on keyboards and vocals, and released Dreaming Waylon’s Dreams in 2007, following it with a political solo album, Let Freedom Ring, in 2009. The fascinating and ambitious Temple Beautiful, a concept album that tackles a sort of alternative history of Prophet’s adopted San Francisco, arrived early in 2012.
NPR Review of Temple Beautiful by Ken Tucker http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146572792/chuck-prophets-beautiful-homage-to-san-francisco
https://www.facebook.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
www.last.fm/music/
chuckprophet.com/
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/
THE SCOTT GREENE BAND
After years of playing in, and writing with, several different bands (The DT’s, Loyal Sinners, Slick Watts….and more), Scott put together a group of accomplished players dedicated to creating their own uninhibited musical vehicle.
Hailing from the great Northwest he’s got designs on world domination, or at least a few good albums and a stint as musical guest of SNL.
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