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. “What’s 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 Cope’s 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 Cope’s latest record and the first to be released on his own label. It’s a change in business plan, but the music sounds much the same – “Healing Hands,” the first single, is part love song (“What’s 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 Street’s in-store, it’s free and much more intimate. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Sat., April 3, 3 p.m., 2010