Better call up the plumber!

As if a couple Midwest solo shows, and a 2 night stand in Austin during the SXSW Film Fest isn’t enough, we’ve got a cluster of West Coast Spring dates to announce with the one and only Garland Jeffreys.

We’re thrilled to be backing Garland as well as doing our own thing on these shows. What can I tell you about Garland? (People get a kick out of hearing he was Lou Reed’s college roommate. Who swept the floor? With who?) How about that he made one of the hands-down greatest Rock and Roll singles of all time? “Wild In The Streets,” people! AND he’s been out there doing it ever since. (By the way, that’s a fact about W.I.T.S. I’m in no mood to argue. I’ve been sucked dry by 11 days in the Mexican sun and I just want to get you up to date, then watch Chopped for a few hours. Trust me, just this once.)

Hear for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RzBZsOeqOQ

Advance tickets are available. Scroll down for the deets.

Meanwhile, as I may have mentioned, I was just in Mexico, where Peter Buck’s annual Todos Santos music festival just keeps growing. Aside from the the cool bands, good times, laughs, Bowie covers, and tacos - a whole LOT of tacos, and at any hour - the festival raised money for the Palapa Society. With the help of Peter Buck and Chloe Johnson, it has provided educational scholarships for local children, and (I could probably use a fact checker here), has sent more than 100 kids to college. Pretty amazing. I have nieces and nephews and from what I gather, higher learning isn’t like it was. Going to college actually takes some real doing these days. The Palapa Society is doing righteous work.

If you want to learn more (or even donate), you can do that here: http://palapasociety.org

I know what you people out East are thinking. “We’re freezing our nut sacks off in Rochester or some such and he’s going on about lazing in the Mexico sun. What a jerk.” Okay, slow your roll, haters. It wasn’t all nude sun bathing unicorns and Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt. There were a couple nights where the temperature dropped (it’s a desert, you know), and it got COLD. One time I had to go back to the hotel. It was probably a five minute walk, but still, I had to grab a sweater. A scarf too. And there were also a few mornings where I had to get up before noon. To eat a fish taco.

And, as great as the vibe between the musicians was, it wasn’t all sticky sweet camaraderie. At one point Gary Louris from the Jayhawks, who I felt pretty close to, turned on a dime and got all hostile and started accusing anyone within earshot of being “Olson guys.” He had to take a walk on the beach to calm down. When he got back, I was like, “I dig Mark. Does that make me an Olson guy?” He screamed at me (I looked around but there was no one else there), “You’re ALLLLLL Olson guys!” So I took a walk on the beach. I’m still not sure if he was kidding.

Maybe I made that up.

Speaking of shirt-tails hanging out and Caine Mutiny paranoia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlV3oQ3pLA0

Kidding aside, I had great time playing with Stephie and throwing a band together with Josh Kantor, Dave Depper, and Kevn Kinney. And it was a treat to see The Autumn Defense, Mike Mills (AKA @LordMillsey), La Santa Cecilia, Peter’s Filthy Friends, Torreblanca, Mark Eitzel, Death Cab For Cutie, Jeff Tweedy, Old 97’s, Drive-By Truckers, The Jayhawks, Steve Wynn and Linda Pittman, Joseph Arthur, Fernando Viciconte and Chet Lyster too. If that wasn’t enough, John Paul Jones was more than happy to sit in and burn on mandolin or steel guitar or whatever.

Before I crank up the cable TV, this just in: The Poetry Clown (klipschutz to you) has a new book out, A Visit to the Ranch & other poems. Every copy made by hand in Olympia, Washington. Plus he’s gone all multimedia with this Lil Mike (“the Antonioni of YouTube”) directed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rec7D3Dq4Xw&feature=youtu.be&a

THU MAR 10 SUNDOWN AT GRANADA DALLAS TX USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express. Tickets $15. Show at 10:00 PM.

FRI MAR 11 CONTINENTAL CLUB AUSTIN TX USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express. Tickets $15. Show at 10:00 PM.

SAT MAR 12 CONTINENTAL CLUB AUSTIN TX USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express. Tickets $15. Show at 8:00 PM.

THU MAR 24 THE B-SIDE - ONE LUCKY GUITAR FORT WAYNE IN USA Chuck Prophet (Solo) “An Evening With”. Tickets $12. Doors at 8:00 PM.

FRI MAR 25 UPTOWN GRILL LASALLE IL USA Chuck Prophet (Solo) “An Evening With”. Tickets $25. Doors at 6:30 PM. Show at 7:30 PM.

FRI APR 15 GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL SAN FRANCISCO CA USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express with Garland Jeffreys. Tickets $19.

FRI APR 22 BOOTLEG THEATER - BAR STAGE LOS ANGELES CA USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express with Garland Jeffreys. Tickets $13, $15.

SAT APR 23 LOBERO THEATRE SANTA BARBARA CA USA Chuck Prophet & Mission Express with Garland Jeffreys. Tickets $39.

NIGHT SURFER 3-D BOX SET

I want to tell you about a few things, okay? First of all, the long awaited NIGHT SURFER 3-D BOX SET is now ready for pre-order: http://tinyurl.com/ph7to5e

Yep. You heard me. The 3D Night Surfer 7″ Singles BOX SET Collection. A total of seven 7” vinyl singles. 12 tracks from Night Surfer, plus 2 bonus tracks. And it comes with 3D glasses(!) This limited edition box features new artwork by the legendary John Foster and is guaranteed to be the envy of your friends and might even make Jack White a little jealous. Who knows? I mean we honestly doubt he’ll hear about it, but it’s certainly possible. It’s just THAT good. Plus we have it on authority that Uncle Jack is a sensitive dude and gets his feelings hurt easily. Whatever. Oh yeah, one more thing about the box set: just to keep it interesting, we’ve sewed a couple California Lottery Superstar Crossword Scratchers in there under the artwork. Do you feel lucky? Well then, what you waiting for? Get with the program and pre-order here: http://tinyurl.com/ph7to5e

PS: I made a Spotify playlist for the occasion. Songs that inspired Night Surfer. You can get to it this-a-way: http://www.yeproc.com/nightsurfergiveaway/

Meanwhile, I think the Mountain Stage I taped last month was broadcast last night or over the weekend… Honestly, I’m a little confused with the whole consult-your-local-listings part but I do know it was my seventh Mountain Stage appearance because they told me so. [Again. Do you feel lucky? I know I do]. Always a treat to play with the Mountain Stage house band. Everyone there is so cool and fun to work with. It was really hard to say goodbye. So hard in fact, I thought I’d take home a souvenir or two and shoved a couple interns into a flight case. Rolled those kids right out of there and I’ve got them chained up in the basement now. They write my tweets! In fact, one of them is writing this newsletter. As is always the case, you can check it out on the interwebs: http://bit.ly/1kW1kSZ

Meanwhile back in Gigsville: We’ve got some Bay Area gigs to announce. We’re playing New Years Eve in Berkeley. And we’re also playing Santa Cruz and Mill Valley. [See below for the official dates]. Before then, I’ll be making my way out to Chicago to play an acoustic show with my main man Joseph Arthur at the City Winery.

And then Stephie and I will be heading down to Todos Santos once again for Peter Buck’s annual Todos Santos festival in Baja, California Jan 14-23 (which, after four years of playing, I’m pretty sure is in Mexico). We’ll be there with way too many bands to name check but here goes: (Death Cab For Cutie, Jeff Tweedy, Old 97’s, Drive-By Truckers, The Jayhawks, The Autumn Defense, La Santa Cecilia, Filthy Friends, Torreblanca, Tigir … plus Mark Eitzel, Steve Wynn, Kevn Kinney, Joseph Arthur, and Surprise Guests!). Get more reliable deets here: http://todossantosmusicfestival.com/lineup

I had a great time out there on the Rock and Roll Indian Dance tour. Drove myself all over. Lots of East Coast shows. [Incidentally: People are nuts out there. Honking and yelling and drinking Dunken Donuts coffee. It’s wild. I love it]. Played a ton of cool gigs. Plus, I had a great time visiting with Joe Belock at WFMU and enjoyed a nice on-air chat. http://bit.ly/1WTgwlt

One memorable gig was a last minute show at The Saint in Asbury Park. As soon as I walked in I was like, “I know this place. Last time I was here a fight broke out. ON STAGE. It was 1999” [Carmaig might remember. Carmaig, are you out there?] And the bartender says, “Wellllll, there were words. But we don’t considerer it a fight, Chuck, unless the paramedics show.”

Yep. Asbury Park. I wandered around the Boardwalk and was happy to see three or four surfers out there; drinking up the waist high waves on tap as the sun was going down. I walked around looking for a turkey sandwich but to no avail. I did press my face against the glass of a 4th wave coffee joint that sadly looked like the inside of an Apple Store and decided to keep on walking. Everything’s changed. Nothing’s changed.

I’ve changed.

Tons of gigs… . Also, I wanted to thank my new friends up in Halifax, Canada for the very cool HUFF fest. They speak French up there, you know. I almost started smoking again. [Wait, was that on this tour?].

And also thanks to the folks at Technocracy for including me at their conference. We played a few songs and I made my best effort to convince the tech nerds in the audience that Jumpin’ Jack Flash is more interesting than anything Steve Jobs ever did. Ah, you know… doing gods work.

Yours,

-CP