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MARTY CLEARHe may not have played for American audiences until recently, but Chuck Prophet's music is most certainly American.
It has taken a while, but America is finally discovering Chuck Prophet.
Like a lot of this country's most respected independent musicians, Prophet started building his audience overseas. It was largely a matter of logistics and practicality.
"There's a built-in independent infrastructure in Europe," he said. "North America was just so vast, and we had some shy record companies. We just ignored North America hoping it would go away, but it found us."
He has been making records and CDs for 13 years, but only in the past couple of years have more and more U.S. music lovers come to discover the ethereal joys of Chuck Prophet. His most recent CD, No Other Love, is his biggest stateside hit. He has appeared on Craig Kilborn's late-night TV show, and one of his songs was recently covered by legendary soul singer Solomon Burke.
Local audiences can experience his exuberant live show when Prophet returns to the Tropical Heatwave on Saturday.
Although he's often, and not inaccurately, labeled an Americana artist, Prophet's music is a lot less traditional than most of his colleagues'. It has a sort of Beck-flavored adventurousness beneath its essentially simple songwriting.
"It's American music," Prophet said. "In other words, it's not European music. It's not really meant to be played the way it's written on the page. I just throw it into a pot, bring it to a boil and see what floats to the top."
This will be Prophet's second appearance at Tropical Heatwave. He and his band rocked the Cuban Club Ballroom in 2001.
A lot of fans of WMNF-FM 88.5 discovered Prophet at that show, and last year they named No Other Love their favorite album of 2002 in a station poll.
Despite two years of nonstop touring since then, Prophet remembers the Heatwave gig well.
"It was memorable," he said "It was real memorable. I ran into old friends like the Iguanas and Alejandro Escovedo, friends I never get to see because we're always on the road."
In the odd, rambling diary he posts on his Web site (www.chuckprophet.com) Prophet summons up other memories of the evening. The sweat-soaked crowd kept asking for more and more encores. During a backstage break, Prophet's wife Stephanie Finch, who plays keyboards and sings in the four-piece band, said, "We've already given those rednecks more than they deserve."
"Why do people always assume she's the sweet one and I'm the bad one?" Prophet asks.
So, as he drove 3,000 miles from his San Francisco home to Tampa, Prophet was looking forward to Heatwave. Along the road, he was hoping to work out a KC and the Sunshine Band medley for the Florida audience.
The rest of his band would fly in later.
"I have them on salary," he said. "So I don't have to pay them for as many hours if they fly. Even my wife is on salary. She didn't want to buy stock in the company. She knew it was a loser."