o What: Citizen Cope, in concert.
o When: 8 p.m. March 31.
o Where: Roseland Theater, 8 N.W. Sixth Ave., Portland.
o Cost: $25-$40 through TicketsWest, 800-992-8499 or ticketswest.com.
o Information: 503-224-2038 or roselandpdx.com.
Citizen Cope has never been an artist who enjoyed much radio play or even a big push from his record companies, though he has spent his entire career up to now on major labels.
Yet, he is in the enviable position of being an artist who can play large clubs and theaters and, as his current tour attests, sell out multiple nights in cities such as Boston and Philadelphia. To Cope, his ever-expanding popularity is largely the result of having created a sound that is uniquely his with a message that feels authentic and honest.
“You don’t want to try and make a record like somebody else makes it,” Cope said in an early February phone interview. “You just want to take the good stuff that you like or you enjoy as a listener, and if it works in your stuff, you want to (give) something from your own soul that’s original. I think that’s what people identify with in the long term. A lot of these songs that I’ve done are going to stand the test of time. It’s amazing that ‘The Clarence Greenwood Recordings’ still sells a thousand copies a week, and it (that CD) is six weeks old. ‘The Karma Kid’ had its best year last year, and that’s eight years old.”
Not Fitting a Format
While he isn’t a platinum-selling star, Cope has built a very respectable level of success despite going against the conventional wisdom that suggests that to achieve major popularity, an artist should create a focused sound that fits a popular musical format.