Alternative music favorite Citizen Cope will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the UND Chester Fritz Auditorium in Grand Forks in a concert arranged by the UND Association of Residence Halls programming board.
Citizen Cope's music is a mix of R&B, pop, rock and folk. Born Clarence Greenwood, the singer and songwriter is referred to in his online biography as a "radically mashed-up product" of Greenville, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; Vernon and Austin, Texas; Washington; and Brooklyn, New York.
He's produced four albums, the latest, "The Rainwater," in 2010. He started his present career in Washington, and was recruited for the artsy-edgy band Basehead, where Cope stayed in the background, moving dials and pushing buttons, according to his website bio. At the same time, he was writing songs and thinking about who would sing them. Eventually, he decided he would sing them himself, and released his debut album in 2002.
"'Citizen Cope' (the album) introduces us to a world of musical worry that doesn't come fully into focus until his second album," his bio says. That second release, "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings" (2004), together with his next two records, formed a trilogy.
In "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings," Citizen Cope stripped his music of any excess but left the sound as big as it needed to be and injected it with urgency. The most celebrated song from the album, "Sideways," with its refrain, "These feelings won't go away, they're knocking me sideways," caught the attention of Carlos Santana, who covered it and asked Cope to perform with him during a European tour.
ADVERTISEMENT
Citizen Cope's "Every Waking Moment," released in 2006, was "more self-reflection, sly personal and political analysis" in the form of free-wheeling stories.
"The thread is about survival, the realization of romance, the hope for reconciliation, the strain to connect father and son, life and death, heaven and hell," according to one description.
Cope has worked with a number of record companies and has made guest appearances on albums by Santana and Dido. His songs, such as "Let the Drummer Kick" and "Bullet and a Target," have been featured in films, television series and advertisements. "Let the Drummer Kick" went gold on the Recording Industry Association of America list. Citizen Cope's most recent endeavor has been to start his own record label, Rainwater Recordings.
He has toured tirelessly, sometimes with a band, sometimes simply with his guitar. Tonight, he'll perform at the Fargo Theater. After Saturday's show in Grand Forks, he'll be in Albany, N.Y., on May 15 and Louisville, Ky., on May 18, and, beginning June 2, in Europe in Brussels, Amsterdam and London.
Free tickets to Saturday's show are available to UND residence hall students. Tickets are $10 for UND faculty, staff and nonresidence hall students, and $15 for the public. They're available through Chester Fritz box office and Ticketmaster outlets including charge by phone at (800) 745-3000.
If you go
- What: Concert by alternative music favorite Citizen Cope
- When and where: 8 p.m. Saturday, UND Chester Fritz Auditoriu, Grand Forks
ADVERTISEMENT
- Tickets: UND residence hall students, free; UND faculty, staff and nonresidence hall students, $10; public, $15. Available through Chester Fritz box office and Ticketmaster outlets, including charge by phone, (800) 745-3000
- See, hear and read more about Citizen Cope: www.citizencope.com
