It’s a ‘Summertime Thing’ at the Sunset Concert Series | Arts & Entertainment

Chuck Prophet’s song “Summertime Thing” is as good an anthem for summer as you’ll ever hear. It came out on his 2002 record “No Other Love.”

Tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 6, Prophet will put on one of his own summertime things at Conference Center Plaza as part of the 2025 Mountain Village Sunset Concert Series. The show starts at 6:30 p.m.

This summertime thing will have a decidedly Latin flair. Prophet is touring with the band Qiensave, who play the South American style of music known as cumbia.

Prophet is one of those artists that if you know, you know. Know what, you ask? That he has been one of the coolest, grooviest musicians in the Americana, alt-rock space of the last 30 years.

Prophet is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has made several impressive solo albums and collaborated with some of the greatest musicians in music (he appeared on Warren Zevon’s 2000 late career triumph “Life’ll Kill Ya’”). Bruce Springsteen covered one of his tunes.

Prophet’s songwriting is incredibly evocative. His characters come to life in tunes that are melodic and rooted in rock, country, blues and folk, and often dripped in psychedelia.

In the aforementioned “Summertime Thing,” Prophet sings, “Ask your dad for the keys to the Honda, can your sister come along, how could she not wanna? Put the Beach Boys on, wanna hear ‘Help Me Rhonda.’”

One can’t help but want to be in the backseat of that Honda. Indeed, being injected into any Chuck Prophet song would be a fine fate.

Prophet was born in Whittier, California. Growing up, he lived in La Habra, midway between Orange County and Los Angeles. His earliest inspiration was his older sister’s record collection, which included The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles and David Bowie.

He started playing the guitar as a teenager and was obsessed with Jimi Hendrix. He played in several bands and moved to San Francisco in 1984, joining the band Green on Red. He would become the group’s primary musician, alongside founder and songwriter Dan Stuart.

Green on Red had a solid following and was even bigger overseas than here in the States. The group split up in 1992.

Prophet launched his solo career in 1990 with his album “Brother Aldo.” He made 15 records leading up to the pandemic, many making top 10 lists in magazines including Pitchfork and Rolling Stone.

Prophet was about to release his record “The Land that Time Forgot” when COVID hit, which squelched the album’s release and a world tour.

“And then, like that, I was sidelined. My calendar was wiped clean, and really for the 1st time in my life I stopped. I kind of loved it,” Prophet said of his COVID days in an interview conducted from his home in San Francisco.

Prophet came out of the pandemic ready to rock when he was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma, for which he received six months of treatment. It was around this time that he became obsessed with cumbia music, which is said to have originated in the jungles of South America, particularly Columbia.

“When I was being treated for cancer, music was my salvation. It was the only thing that would really take me out of my head,” Prophet said. “I became somewhat of an evangelist for this music. I was collecting records, and I was loading my friends up with mixtapes, and pushing it on everybody. I became very evangelical, and this kind of music got me excited enough to start writing songs.”

A friend told Prophet about a band called Qiensave, a group made up of brothers who play cumbia music from Salinas, a farming community on the central coast of California.

“I went down to watch them play a gig in the Mission District, and I became enamored with them,” Prophet said. “I went to see them a couple times, and I introduced myself. I was a bit of a fanboy, and I asked them questions about how’d you do this? And how’d you do that? And what are you listening to? And they eventually said, ‘Look, we got a house in the woods. You can come down and bring your amp and your guitar, and we can turn up as loud as you want. For an apartment dweller like me in San Francisco, that was music to my ears. I said, ‘I’ll be there.’ So I started jamming with these guys, and we ended up playing at a festival in Big Sur, and it really started to click. When I eventually went into the studio to make the record, I created a blended family with my band The Mission Express and members from Qiensave, and that’s what you hear on the record.”

Prophet’s record “Wake the Dead” blends rock and roll, punk, surf and soul with the legacy of cumbia music. If you like Los Lobos, then this record is for you.

“A lot of people on my team were a bit nervous but I’ve been pretty delighted with the response by my audience,” Prophet said. “I know my fans are cool so I’m not completely surprised that people embraced it.”

When asked to describe his fans, Prophet said, “They’re well read. They’re well listened. They’re good looking, slightly dangerous. Some may or may not be incarcerated. It really runs the gamut.”

What does he hope people take away from a Chuck Prophet show?

“I want my show to be something that the people want to return to,” he said. “And I do see a lot of the same faces when I tour the world and I’m proud of that.”