Prophet Produces Stephanie Finch LP

A longtime musical partnership now bears solo fruit for vocalist/keyboardist Finch.

By Fred Mills

Longtime Chuck Prophet watchers will immediately recognize the name Stephanie Finch: she's been a mainstay of most of Prophet's combos, playing keyboards and lending her sexy vocals to the mix. Now she is stepping out on her own with a debut solo album on Prophet's own (((bellsound))) label. It's titled Cry Tomorrow, billed as Stephanie Finch and The Company Men, and due May 18.

Prophet describes it as "a delightful, melodic take on 'Loaded' era Velvets or Modern Lovers," and quite naturally he lent his production ear and songwriting hand to the project. Still, it's Finch's vehicle, and you can already hear a musical sampling at her MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/stephaniefinchmusic

Incidentally, at that same MS page she lists her influences as being "Velvet Underground, Modern Lovers, Stooges, Bob Dylan, Dan Penn, Beatles, Beach Boys, Alex Chilton, Chuck Prophet, Dusty Springfield, Bobbie Gentry, Shangri-las, Pretenders, David Bowie, Kinks, T Rex, Chuck Berry and Carole King." Not a bad roster.

The Company Men: Chuck Prophet, Kelley Stoltz and Rusty Miller. You may recognize some of those other names too - Stoltz has issued a slew of critically acclaimed albums over the past decade, including three for Sub Pop, and has been compared to Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen, while Miller was spotted a few years ago playing with the band Jackpot, whose Moonbreath album came out  in 2007 on Jackpine Social Club.