One morning last year, I was getting coffee at Starbucks in South Lake Union when I spotted a tall man with a familiar-looking dreadlocked ponytail. I eyed him suspiciously. Whats your name? He shyly avoided my eyes and mumbled, Clarence. Are you Citizen Cope? Clarence smiled at me. Yes, I am. Unassuming, yet confident – Citizen Copes music has always struck me in a similar way. His songs have got to be bold, mixing as they do the soul of bluesy rock-and-roll and the edge and rawness of hip hop. The RainWater LP is Copes latest record and the first to be released on his own label. Its a change in business plan, but the music sounds much the same Healing Hands, the first single, is part love song (Whats a pocket full of gold without a woman that could you hold?), part political treatise mourning a history of corruption, and all thrumming rhythms and smoky vocals. Citizen Cope will play a three-night stint at the Showbox from April 1-3 (the 2nd and 3rd are sold out), but if you can squeeze into Easy Streets in-store, its free and much more intimate. ERIN K. THOMPSON
Sat., April 3, 3 p.m., 2010