Chuck Prophet feat. ¿Qiensave? - Wake The Dead (2024)

Collaborating with an established cumbia band feels surprising, but not shocking, as a new twist in Chuck Prophet's music. For nearly forty years, since joining Green On Red for Gas Food Lodging (1985), Prophet has combined blues, rock, country, and even R&B influences into a swirl that since the mid-'90s, has come to be known as Americana. While South and Central American influences like cumbia would be a natural extension for such a genre-crossing artist, especially one who both grew up in and started his career in southern California, they had not informed his music before Wake the Dead.

Prophet first became interested in cumbia after attending a weekly concert series in San Francisco, where he now lives. His passion for cumbia grew while receiving intense treatments for lymphoma, and this experience shaped his writing for Wake the Dead. Prophet then discovered the Salinas-based group ¿Qiensave?, and began collaborating with them as his health returned: first on live shows, and then on a recording session joined by his usual backing band, The Mission Express.

Given the struggles from which the album grew, Prophet's contagious joy and ¿Qiensave?'s emphasis on fun-loving propulsion—which their bio ties to Mario Cortez's güira playing—provides another surprising twist. Even when the lyrics turn dark, like the "I had another nightmare" line that kicks off "Give the Boy a Kiss," this pervasive spirit is an obvious and purposeful contrast.

Songs like "First Came the Thunder" emphasize Prophet's Americana songwriting voice, with ¿Qiensave? then stretching arrangements into unexpected directions. The layered percussion, accordion-like keyboard textures, and backing "whoa" chants pull a familiar type of song into new and original territory.

By merging cumbia with an Americana idiom, Wake the Dead treads similar turf to Los Lobos. But where Los Lobos thrive by exploring a range of emotions, Wake the Dead emphasizes a consistently light and festive energy.

TRACKLIST

1. Chuck Prophet - Wake The Dead
2. Chuck Prophet - Betty's Song
3. Chuck Prophet - Give the Boy a Kiss
4. Chuck Prophet Feat. ¿Qiensave? - First Came the Thunder
5. Chuck Prophet - Sally Was a Cop
6. Chuck Prophet Feat. ¿Qiensave? - Red Sky Night
7. Chuck Prophet - Same Old Crime
8. Chuck Prophet - One Lie for Me, One for You
9. Chuck Prophet Feat. ¿Qiensave? - Sugar into Water
10. Chuck Prophet Feat. ¿Qiensave? - In the Shadows (for Elon)
11. Chuck Prophet - It's a Good Day to Be Alive