Chuck Prophet

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. ~ Denise Sullivan & Steve Leggett, Rovi