Chuck Prophet

Ever since his days as guitarist for the unclassifiable '80s band Green on Red, Chuck Prophet has played the pop blues. His latest, Soap and Water, pays tribute to the suave yet tortured work of Memphis icon Alex Chilton. The modified tango of "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" takes up where Chilton's 1979 "Hey! Little Child" left off, while "Let's Do Something Wrong" effortlessly combines Prophet's rhythm guitar with Nashville's Vine Street Christian Church Children's Choir. Producers Prophet and Brad Jones make Soap sing, with touches of Texas two-step and one-chord electro-blues complementing songs such as "Downtime" and "Freckle Song," which finds Prophet crooning, "Let me help you out of that dress/Before you catch a cold." Just like Chilton, Prophet makes music that's insouciant and empathetic, as on the gorgeous "Small Town Girl," about one more victim of the big city whose new clothes can't conceal the same old heartbreak.
Fri., Oct. 26, 8 p.m., 2007