Pages tagged “Clarence Greenwood”

For more than a decade, Clarence Greenwood has inhabited that off-white tower overlooking the American street scene. Even if his dwelling is more bullet-riddled fake stucco than pure ivory, Greenwood—aka Citizen Cope—has made his oft-meager living observing the American drama and offering us its tales, like an inner-city rag salesman showing swatches. Whether it’s Baltimore hustlers, lost souls in the nation’s capitol, or the victims—both foreign and homegrown—of war, the characters in Cope’s songs from The Clarence Greenwood Recordings (2004), have walked, talked and protested on the seedy streets paved by the tradition of the American observational songwriter.

But even as Cope sat on his perch—part sniper, part trainspotter (on litany pieces such as “Let the Drummer Kick It”)—another side of his personality became apparent: Rapunzel, emitting faint calls for help. Every Waking Moment is the nexus of these songwriting styles, the moment when Citizen Cope transitions from neo-soul ’60s folkie to something else—a kind of hip-hop generation Van Morrison, more interested in questions than answers; greys than black-and-whites. This new album displays a tremendous increase in maturity, past the derelict train station of genre-blend—the forgotten depot where a mash-up of hip-hop and folk rings new and noteworthy—and onto the path toward a personal enlightenment.