Night Surfer

Chuck Prophet’s 13th solo album deserves to be the album that raises his profile as high as any durable classic rocker. An underrated guitarist who can play rings around his competition, Prophet focuses on singer/songwriter music as his method of communication. His previous album—2012’s Temple Beautiful—was a tour of San Francisco from the sharpest guide on land. Night Surfer now looks deeper into the psychology that makes living in the city unique. Songs such as “Countrified Inner City Technological Man,” “Guilty as a Saint,” “Ford Econoline,” and “Truth Will Out (Ballad of Melissa and Remy)” take various paths to pathos. Prophet is a music veteran, a songwriter’s songwriter, and a musician’s musician, having been one of the earliest movers in the alt-country scene. He can toss off a line like “The river of life changes course every morning” from “Laughing on the Inside” with the authority of a master. And he’s humble enough to ingratiate himself on “Wish Me Luck,” where he offers, “My life is an experiment/That doesn’t prove a thing.”