Clarence Greenwood, who performs under the moniker Citizen Cope, navigated the concrete jungle of Washington, D.C. during the school year, attending the same high school as Dischord Records founders. Then he would spend every summer in the small rural Texas town of Vernon, where there are more churches than restaurants and some still believe in keeping race divided.
Greenwood says that experiencing such a vast cultural contrast year after year helped shape his 2004 breakout, The Clarence Greenwood Recordings. Part East Coast soul/R&B, part Southern-flavored Americana-roots, the record is a perpetually-evolving cross-genre chowder, and the best representation of Citizen Cope the musician and the person. The album-opener “Nite Becomes Day” is a sleek waterfall of fresh city beats, silky synth tones and vocals packaged in Philly soul.
Greenwood professes, “I believe in the same thing that makes the night become day/ Tide and the water/ Sons and the daughters/ Can’t hide it can’t fight it/ Love.”
Cope’s infectious method of genre integration has attracted some pretty powerful names interested in working with Greenwood in some capacity: Carlos Santana covered one of his songs (“Sideways”) on his Shaman album. (Santana also had Cope sing and produce the song.) Eric Clapton invited him to perform “Hands of the Saints” on stage with him at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago. In 2008, the late great Richie Havens released an earthy rendition of Cope’s “Hurricane Waters.”
“It was really touching to have Richie Havens cover ‘Hurricane Waters’ before he passed away,” Greenwood says. “You’ve got to have respect for someone who has [created music] at such a high level.”
Beyond superior creativity, Greenwood admires his aforementioned admirers, for being able to maintain success for so long.
“The system was designed for the artist to either end up dead or broke,” he explains. “Somehow, these guys beat the system.”
CITIZEN COPE 8pm Thursday, Feb. 12. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $26-$48. 649-1070.
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