Citizen Cope

The Music Center at Strathmore is a long way from the dead-and-gone downtown nightspots where Citizen Cope played in the 1990s (Food for Thought, among them). But on Wednesday night, there he was.

Before moving to New York in search of a career, Cope, born Clarence Greenwood and raised in Washington, made more money as a ticket scalper than a musician. Back then he had better odds of ending up selling tickets to somebody else's sold-out shows than headlining at a venue as pristine as Strathmore, the La Scala of southern Montgomery County.

Cope is billing his current road trip the Solo Acoustic Tour, and while it's true he was the only live musician onstage, for much of the night he accompanied himself with sampled drums and keyboards. The digital band mates surely cut down on the tour's overhead costs, but the arrangement also detracted from the organic aura that Cope has cultivated.

Cope's material isn't easy to peg. Every song blends jazzy chords played at reggae rhythms and hip-hoppy lyrics sung with a soul vibe. Yet very often, as on "Fame," "Bullet and a Target" and "Brother Lee," Cope's mix ended up sounding a whole lot like pop music.

Cope's fan base is as diverse as his influences. The beautiful hall was filled with a melange of middle-age bohemians, suburban Rastafarians, urban hipsters and a surprising number of plain-old high school kids. (Perhaps "Son's Gonna Rise," a fabulous song that was used to great effect last year in a "One Tree Hill" episode, introduced some portion of the kids to Cope.)

The flock was united in its adoration. Cope smiled and stepped away from the microphone as the crowd took over singing duties at the end of "D'Artagnan's Theme." Shouts of love came down from the rafters during "Salvation," a stoner shoot-'em-up tale that references the alleys off Ninth Street where he once hung out. Quite a homecoming.

-- Dave McKenna (Oct. 2008)