Although he's kidding, to look at the above quotes might give one the impression that Chuck Prophet doesn't handle compliments so well. "They can make you uncomfort- able," he says from his home in San Francisco. Then, as if he's had a sudden change of heart, he says, "I have to admit I am an expert on my favorite subject - myself." Prophet is kidding again, of course, and in spite of his noncommittal take on the subject of praise, he does act a bit surprised when told the glowing things people have said about his music. However, if Prophet is humble when it comes to praise, he'd better get used to it; the release of his new album, No Other Love, is going to have critics and fans alike gushing with adoration.
Prophet was born in Whittier, a small California suburb. Right out of high school, he joined Green On Red, whose country-meets-folk-meets-too many drugs Americana was one of the early warning signs of the alt country scare to come. After one E.P. and eight albums with Green On Red, Prophet headed off on his own shortly before the band disintegrated. In 1990, he released Brother Aldo (Fire Records), a soulful/homespun/lo-fi/country-fried folk affair that Melody Maker called "as close to the genuine article as a white boy can get."

Since then, Prophet's solo career has never let up, with each successive album gathering more praise than the last. Select magazine called him, "the best of this whole wracked-out, country-rock genre since Gram Parsons - and that's no hyperbole." Q magazine described him as "the missing link between Paul Westerberg and Bob Dylan." No Depression cited the sample-driven country soul of his last CD, The Hurting Business, as one of the best records of the year. In fact, Prophet has a rock and roll vitae that would make any musician blush with envy. He's worked with Cake, Kelly Willis, The Silos, The Mr. T. Experience, Bob Neuwirth, Calvin Russell, Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Warren Zevon, and is a member of the favorite unknown super group, Raisins In The Sun (Jim Dickinson, Jules Shear, Paul Kolderie, Sean Slade, Harvey Brooks). Not only that, he's had his songs covered by Kelly Willis, Kim Richey, Jim Dickinson, and even top 40 New Country pin-up Cyndi Thomson. Although one might think that after working with some of the most legendary names in the business, being around famous folks would lose its nerve-wracking charge, he admits that working with Warren Zevon "intimidated the dogshit out of me. It was the best paid internship I ever had."