Chad Syme
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection is “A Woman’s Voice” by Chuck Prophet, recorded live during KEXP’s broadcast from Berkeley, CA.
Chuck Prophet, depending on where you are standing, is often a forgotten or ignored slice of original Americana. His ability to weave wit and candor in a swatch of storytelling devices seems wasted when it goes unnoticed but so goes the current crop of singer/songwriters that don’t exist within the lines of conformity. Prophet’s songs read like snippets of Neil Simon, John Steinbeck, or Ken Kesey and that we allow the nation’s conscious to go on existing with the knowledge of Chuck seems like a crime. Thankfully, fans and admirers alike are turning on a wide audience to the literary appeal and sly smile of Chuck’s work. Like a painter colors a canvas, Chuck Prophet uses song to capture the everyday existence of the noblest, wisest, and most normal in each of us -- that he does so with a truckstop charm and words as sweet as pecan pie may make him an unlikely candidate to be the next Norman Rockwell but as Chuck continues to teach us, appearances are deceiving.
MySpace is sad to inform us that Chuck isn’t touring at the moment but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying his past works. For example, did you know Chuck makes music videos that are fun? If you didn’t, allow us to show you with “Freckle Song”:
Here’s the video for this very performance at KEXP’s Bay Area broadcast from Opus Music Ventures studio in Berekely, CA:
