Sings Like Hell series No. 28 will continue with a double bill of Chuck Prophet plus Stephanie Finch & the Company Men at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. in Santa Barbara.
Prophet sings, plays and writes in a great variety of styles without greatly altering his core musical identity. He can do a fine solo set with only an acoustic guitar, or he can front an electric band with his Fender Telecaster. He writes mainly love songs, rather than topical or autobiographical narratives.
Regardless of the mood or the scale of the musical setting, his lyrics tend to remain on a personal, intimate level — introverted and simple, often cryptic.
He cut eight albums with the rock group Green on Red before releasing his first solo album in 1990, and has worked as a sideman or session musician with many artists, including Bob Neuwirth, Kelly Willis, Aimee Mann, Warren Zevon, Jonathan Richman, Lucinda Williams and Cake.
As they were on stage about to sing a duet, Prophet once introduced Finch as “my best friend in the whole world,” so you would be right to assume that this double bill was not put together by pulling names from a hat. In fact, they are husband and wife.
If you hear them separately, you would be forgiven for thinking their styles and voices would never blend — Finch is a rather sophisticated chanteuse and a composer of effective torch songs — but they do blend, and beautifully.
That said, and despite the evidence of this concert, Finch is growing her own career and doing a very good job of it.
Tickets to Sings Like Hell are $35 and are available at the Lobero box office, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. or 805.963.0761. Click here to order online.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com.