Citizen Cope Hits the National
Editor's Note: The snowed-out Citizen Cope concert originally on Feb. 6 at the National has been rescheduled to Wednesday, April 28.
When you hit play on the new disc by Citizen Cope, prepare for the old-school sound of a needle hitting vinyl, followed by pops from the needle running through the groove.
“I kind of wanted to pay tribute to the great records that were made,” said Cope, speaking from Chapel Hill, N.C. It sounds wholly appropriate to hear vinyl pops between the tracks on “The Rainwater LP” (available digitally Feb. 9, with the disc’s release following on March 2), as the warm, loose feel of “Rainwater” has an organic nature that recalls its early-‘70s antecedents.
Citizen Cope, otherwise known as Clarence Greenwood, has worked his way through the past decade to release some of his strongest recordings on “Rainwater.” After years of working with other labels, this album will be released on his own imprint, Rainwater Recordings. Initially signed to Capital in the late ‘90s, Cope joined Dreamworks Records in 2000 and released his self-titled debut two years later. Carlos Santana took notice of the up-and-coming artist around this time, and the legendary guitarist invited Cope to join him for a version of Cope’s song “Sideways” for inclusion on Santana’s 2002 No. 1 album, “Shaman.”
“I did the song “Sideways” for my album, and he heard it and he actually wanted to put it on his record as well,” recalled Cope. “I hadn’t put mine out, but everyone really liked it; his wife liked it, his family liked it, the record company really liked it. It was just one of those things that came together really well.”
While Santana sold 5 million copies of his album, Cope was unhappy with how his own record was being handled by his label and chose to issue 2004’s “The Clarence Greenwood Recordings” through Arista Records, as well as his 2006 album “Every Waking Moment.” It gradually occurred to Cope that the only way he would be truly happy with his next album was to release it himself.
The mix of rock, folk, blues and hip-hop elements on “The Rainwater LP” forms a defining portrait of considerable depth. While he didn’t go for any drastically different creative approaches with the new album, Cope feels that this record, brought to life completely under his guidance, is something special.
“I wanted to record in the same kind of studios, to pay people what I paid them in the past. I didn’t want to make a cheap record because it wasn’t being funded by a label. I spent as much money, if not more, on this record. I’ve always had creative freedom making albums, so that aspect of it was pretty much the same. Except I was paying.”
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