The deal has been going down for Chuck Prophet for more than forty years. From his early time with the maverick country-rockers Green On Red, through a solo career which dates from 1990’s Brother Aldo and has since spawned umpteen other great records, countless collaborations and guest appearances with more folks than you can shake a Golden State stick at, right through to his long-standing association with his band The Mission Express, the American singer, songwriter and guitarist had been producing consistently impressive music.
The only thing that stopped Chuck Prophet in his tracks was a diagnosis with stage four lymphoma back in 2022. Following a period of treatment, he was thankfully given the all-clear but this enforced absence gave Prophet time to “just sit and listen to music.” And listen he did, mostly to Cumbia, a style of Latin dance music that originated in the South American country of Colombia.
And from this – “music was my saviour” – Chuck Prophet hooked up with ¿Qiensave? a Cumbia Urbana group from Salinas, California with roots stretching back to Michoacán, Mexico. Together they recorded last year’s Wake The Dead, a brilliant, life-affirming record that rightly attracted a 9* rating on these very pages.
Now Prophet is over in the UK with a six-piece band comprising members of both the Mission Express (James DePrato – guitar and Vincente Rodriguez – drums) and ¿Qiensave? (Alejandro Gomez – guitar and keys, and Mario Cortez – multi-instrumentalist) plus ace bass guitarist, Joaquin Zamudio Garcia. Let’s please welcome Chuck Prophet and his Cumbia Shoes to Leeds, the second stop on a 15-date tour of this sceptred isle.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve come all the way from San Francisco, California to put this little college town on the map.” Chuck Prophet is clearly in a most playful mood. They are three songs in by then and he and his Cumbia Shoes had already achieved his stated objective. A bi-lingual blast of Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’mon Everybody’ and two songs from Wake The Dead, a compelling ‘Same Old Crime’ and the album’s imperious title track had quickly seen to that.
By splicing together the Mission Express’s undiluted spirit of rock’n’roll and ¿Qiensave?’s highly infectious Latin rhythms, Chuck Prophet has hit on a winning formula. Throw in some punk-reggae inflections – think here of The Clash around the time of ‘(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais’ – and some exquisite Beach Boys harmonies from Gomez and Cortez (quite superb they are on ‘Jesus Was a Social Drinker’) and this surely must be the most complete musical unit Prophet has ever assembled.
Chuck Prophet’s searing indictment of American gun law, ‘Killing Machine’ from the excellent 2017 album Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins – showcased here back in 2017 – introduces “the political section” of the set. “Anyone who doesn’t like it can fuck off down the road”, Prophet tells us with a smile on his face. There are no walkouts. ‘In The Shadows (for Elon)’ – his caustic put down of the would-be second-in-line to the recently self-anointed King of America – is similarly warmly received. As is Chuck Prophet’s knowledge of the Yorkshire music scene when in recognition of a Be Bop Deluxe tribute band playing this venue in a few weeks’ time he peels off the melody to ‘Sister Seagull.’
The band’s collective foot is eased back on the gas for ‘One Lie For Me, One For You’ which Chuck Prophet dedicates to his wife and Mission Express member, Stephanie Finch. A quite lovely tune, it is underpinned here by some gorgeous guitar from James DePrato. The recently discontinued ‘Ford Econoline’ van – “Detroit Michigan’s greatest export…with the possible exception of Iggy and the Stooges” – is given a fitting send-off before the set proper ends with an absolutely coruscating ‘You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)’ complete with some incredible guitar-shredding from Prophet himself.
An unexpected surprise arrives by way of the night’s first encore when Chuck Prophet performs Green On Red’s ‘Time Ain’t Nothing.’ Last night’s show in Oxford aside, I don’t believe Prophet had previously played a Green On Red song live with a band in the UK.
“What time is it?” Prophet enquires. “10:36.” He answers his own question after seeing the time on the digital watch of a chap who is stood at the front of the stage. “I’ve been 40 years in this business and 10:36 is too goddamn early to go home” he barks before the band launch into a riotous version of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ rock and roll classic, ‘Wooly Bully’, before we get the added bonus of Chuck Prophet playing a beautifully stripped-back ‘It’s a Good Day to Be Alive’ from Wake the Dead, complete with some exquisite pedal steel guitar from James DePrato.
It is most certainly a good day to be alive. It is only February, I know, but this already feels like it could well be the gig of the year.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Chuck Prophet and his Cumbia Shoes at the Brudenell Social Club
