Jan. 29: Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes to play 3S Artspace

PORTSMOUTH, NH – Based in San Francisco, Chuck Prophet has been an incredibly versatile musician since the mid-’80s while dabbling in the desert rock and alt-country styles. This approach has garnered him acclaim from both critics and contemporaries, with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Solomon Burke, Heart, Peter Wolf, Mark Erelli, Penelope Houston and many others covering his songs. Prophet has recently switched things up a bit with his latest album, “Wake The Dead,” that came out via Yep Roc Records this past October. Diving into Latin influences, the record has a really cool vibe while defying classification. As part of his tour in support of the full-length release, Prophet and his backing band, His Cumbia Shoes, are going to be performing Jan. 29 at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth starting at 8 p.m.

Before the making of “Wake The Dead,” Prophet was going through a health crisis with a stage four version of lymphoma taking him off the road and putting him into surgery. It was a time that had him realizing his own mortality for the first time in his life while being forced to stay still, a position that he was very unfamiliar with.

“I was going through a tunnel,” he recalls via a press release. “It was dark, but I had music: music to play, music to listen to, music to get me out of my head. Music was my savior.”

After the ordeal, Prophet went into the studio to work on the album with ¿Qiensave?, a band of brothers who hail from the farming community within Salinas, California. This collaboration immersed him in Cumbia music, a particular style that has Latin American roots while being aesthetically similar to folk-rock.

“Some say this music started in the jungles of Peru and Colombia,” he explains. “Then it really caught fire in the 1960s. In fact, there was such a demand for Cumbia in Mexico that DJs would travel to Colombia just to bring records back. Now that’s trafficking I can get behind!”

Prophet’s unique spin comes through in songs like “Betty’s Song”, “First Came The Thunder,” “Sally Was A Cop,” and “Sugar Into Water.” There’s a consistent message throughout the album that relays a real look at a situation that isn’t all roses and rhinestones, which is rooted in Prophet’s health scare that he had to confront.

“At one time I felt immortal,” he muses. “Or at least something like it. Remember that age? You’re trying to figure it out, and you’ve got time to do it. You have your whole life in front of you, and in all your young and dumb glory, you’re spending it like you’ve got an endless supply, but all that stupidity stacks up. The meter is running and it’s expensive, and now I can see mortality in the distance, rushing toward me.

“I don’t know if you know what it feels like to have fear driven into you like a stake, but that’s one way to describe the waiting part,” Prophet adds. “Traumatic is another.”

Musically, “Wake The Dead” is an excellent record that pushes the artistic envelope while forging an inventively fearless creative vision. One can only imagine that he and His Cumbia Shoes will perform songs off of it live in pristine fashion, so make sure to head to 3S Artspace this Wednesday night for what will surely be the best way to spend the middle of the week. Beforehand, give the new album a listen for a sense of what to expect.