WHO LOVES MAPS?

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

First off, in case it got past you, I filmed a travel show for Southwest Air and Luck Reunion. A kind of Anthony Bourdain styled show where you can ride shotgun with me and Aaron Lee Tasjan through the backstreets of San Francisco. The Luck Reunion team are brilliant. This ain’t some insidious internet trash. There are real production values. I think you’ll enjoy it.

https://southwest.fm/sites-and-sounds/episode-3/

Now that I’ve got some portion of your attention, I’ve got gigs coming up, and without you there it wouldn’t quite seem right. For now though, allow me to fire up this Trader Joe’s Candle, dim the lights and put on this Miles Davis record [“Lift To The Scaffold” - my go-to Miles jam]. Oh the sweetness of doing nothing!

Things got quiet for a second there, I know. No New Year’s Eve show with the Mission Express. No annual dip down to The Crêpe Place in Santa Cruz. Someone even accused us of hanging it up. That’s how rumors get started. Here’s how they get stopped. I’m not even hanging up my clothes. They’re in a neat stack on a chair. (Don’t make me text you a photo.) What’s the point in hanging them up? End of rumor!

This is it. We’re here, just you and me. Together. Chillaxing, if I may coin a term - right after I find my Time Machine. And no, you don’t have to press one for an operator. Let’s reflect on the crazy ass year that 2019 was, shall we? Can we say anything good about it? Can we say anything good, like period? Or locate the gold-plated silver lining about the future? Well, I’ve got my own reasons to feel a little bit hopeful. Such as my new record coming down the pike. Soon we’ll have a release date and everything. And if that isn’t a better tomorrow, for ourselves, and the children of the world, I don’t know what is.

I also look forward to going out and playing the gigs mentioned above, some SOLO, and some with the Steph and the boys. (Check out my crazy asterisk and pound sign system below. I’m patenting the app as we speak.) I’ll even be taking songs off the new album out for a spin. Dare I say I’m feeling lucky? (Didn’t I just say it?)

And then there’s my great good fortune to be playing some gigs with the mighty Mission Express. The greatest lineup I’ve ever played with out there on the hillbilly highway. And I’m still managing to get lost in it. Not lost lost. Chet Baker lost. Lost in the music.

At Christmas my niece said, “Hey, remember when uncle Chuck had a flip phone? He he he he.” (I was just trying to get some sympathy from my dumb family.) Well, as my friends and bandmates know, I’ve sure got a jesusPhone now. With the GPS it’s a whole new Mayan ballgame out there. Even though I still keep a roadmap stashed in the door of the Econoline, I don’t get it out much. And besides, as Teenage Rob Douglas said, “Bro, I think you’ve got a map phobia.” Incidentally, Rob loved maps. LOVED. MAPS. Another purist weirdo. Hey, I’m a purist weirdo too! Some of my favorite bands still gather around one microphone. But step away from that roadmap and give my GPS a shot, will ya, Rob?

I’m hoping you received this newsletter. Sometimes even I receive it and I’ve subscribed like twice. Under different names. I can’t say why. If you can’t find the newsletter, check your spam folder. And please mark the address as ‘not spam.’ (Who exactly am I speaking to? If you can’t find the newsletter, you’re not reading this. Sorry, I think I have an eggnog hangover.)

Yours,

-CP

1/9/2020 LOS ANGELES CA HOTEL CAFE***

1/17/2020 HOUSTON TX THE HEIGHTS THEATER#

1/18/2020 DALLAS TX THE KESSLER THEATER#

1/19/2020 OKLAHOMA CITY OK THE BLUE DOOR*

1/22/2020 EASTON MD STOLZ LISTENING ROOM*

1/23/2020 BALTIMORE MD CREATIVE ALLIANCE AT THE PATTERSON*

1/24/2020 STATEN ISLAND NY HEFFERNAN’S HOUSE CONCERT*

1/25/2020 MONTCLAIR NJ OUTPOST IN THE BURBS*

1/26/2020 WASHINGTON DC THREE DOG SOUND HOUSE CONCERT*

1/28/2020 COLUMBUS OH NATALIE’S GRANDVIEW*

1/29/2020 PITTSBURGH PA CLUB CAFE*

1/30/2020 HARRISBURG PA NOTE WINE BAR*

1/31/2020 SELLERSVILLE PA SELLERSVILLE THEATER*

2/1/2020 VIENNA VA JAMMIN JAVA*

2/28/2020 DENVER CO SWALLOW HILL/DANIELS HALL*

2/29/2020 FORT COLLINS CO MAGIC RAT*

3/13/2020 AUSTIN TX CONTINENTAL CLUB**

3/14/2020 AUSTIN TX CONTINENTAL CLUB**

CHUCK PROPHET SOLO*

CHUCK PROPHET SOLO - CO-BILL WITH JOSH ROUSE #

CHUCK PROPHET SOLO - SUPPORT TO JESSE MALIN ***

CHUCK PROPHET & THE MISSION EXPRESS **

returning champions

We’re back. Yep. It’s like we never left. Your returning champions, Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express return to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this year. Also some other shows coming up on the horizon, but we’re off the road for now. And honestly, I’m feeling a little lost. I pick up my phone to make sure I know what time it is. Don’t want to be late.

But late for what?

What to do with all this free time? Maybe I’ll start walking more. You know, unplug. Get some fresh air. Walk around the ’hood and peek into those street-level apartments with the big HDTVs and try to figure out what they’re watching. Or maybe ring their buzzer and offer to watch with them. “I brought my own snacks. Is this Stranger Things? I’ve heard a lot about this show.”

Fun aside, word to those of you making the trek to San Francisco for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. If you find yourself missing the Great Indoors, we can help. Friday and Saturday night we’re doing early shows at the Make Out Room in the Mission. After sitting on a blanket all day, you know you’d rather be indoors after dark. In a 21-and-over club, with mood lighting, a swirling glass ball hanging from the ceiling, and red décor. Time to give that floppy hat a rest until the sun comes up again.

All this free time? Yeah, right. Things are frantic as ever. The Temple Beautiful Musical is facing all kinds of twists and turns in the road. And I’ve been in the studio working on a new record. Trying to get some new songs to behave.

And I still found time to listen to all 11 shows of Elvis’s Live 1969 11-CD set, which Allison Hussey at Pitchfork incidentally gave a measly 6.1 and said that “listening to all of Live 1969 is a ridiculous thing to do.” I don’t feel ridiculous. Is it just me, but does Pitchfork’s poor Allison need to get a personality or what? Help her, Lord. And people have said to me, “Chuck, it’s 11 CDs. It’s a little overwhelming.” To which I say people justify the stupidest things. Guys, it’s her profession. It’s not like your aunt who got overwhelmed at the Louvre. And it’s not like she had to listen to Pearl Jam or anything. . . . That review is an abortion! (insert shaking fist GIF here).

Oh, and if that’s not enough, check out the newly released Elvis recording The American Sound Studios Sessions 1969. I’m listening to take 20 of “In the Ghetto” right now and I feel like I’m right there. Like I’m watching the forefathers write the Declaration of Independence.

Oh, and another thing. File under: “They gave the dude a beeper.” Yessir, they gave me a radio show on the Gimme Country Network. I’m spinning lots of 50s, 60s country. Nashville cats, Wrecking Crew side streets, yodeling cowgirls, honky-tonkers, Georgia swampers, truckers, rockabilly cats and kittens, and more. You name it. All that stuff, that funk, that sweet, that funky stuff (Say what).

—————————————————————————————-

THEY GAVE THE DUDE A BEEPER

Onwards,

-CP

PS: If you enjoy this newsletter, consider cruising over to our on-line store. Along with CD’s, T shirts and the like, we have a new shipment of Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins vinyl. Plus ¡LFR! and Night Surfer.

Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/26bfyyj

Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express:

/ The Mission Express:

Stephie Finch: (singing, piano, guitar)

10/4/2019 SAN FRANCISCO CA HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS

10/4/2019 SAN FRANCISCO CA MAKE OUT ROOM

10/5/2019 SAN FRANCISCO CA MAKE OUT ROOM

Chuck Prophet Solo:

11/12/2019 MARTINEZ CA ARMANDO’S

11/13/2019 SANTA YNEZ CA TALES FROM THE TAVERN

11/15/2019 SANTA MONICA CA MCCABE’S

Chuck Prophet Solo - with Dave Alvin:

11/16/2019 WHITTIER CA RUTH B. SHANNON CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS