Citizen Cope, aka singer/songwriter Clarence Greenwood and his band, will hit the road in early 2009 for a string of dates across the South into the late winter. Citizen Cope will stop at The National in Richmond, Va. (Jan. 30), The Lyric Oxford in Mississippi (Feb. 9), Stubb's Bar-B-Q/Waller Creek Amphitheater in Austin (Feb. 14), Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge, La. (Feb. 21) and NorVa in Norfolk, Va. (Feb. 28) among other locations. Cope is expected to release a new acoustic solo album before the end of the year, although no release date has been finalized as of yet. If you can't wait for some new Citizen Cope, you can hear Clarence Greenwood on Dido's latest release, Safe Trip Home, as he guests on “Burnin Love.” Cope's tour kicks off Jan 27 at Recher Theatre in Towson, Md. So check out http://www.stubhub.com/citizen-cope-tickets for Citizen Cope tickets.



Clarence Greenwood was born in Memphis, Tennessee and got his start in the music business when he appeared on a few albums by Maryland rapper Basehead, such as 1993's Not in Kansas Anymore and 1996's Faith. Right around this time Citizen Cope released his first album, confusingly titled Cope Citizen. Subsequent to its release, Greenwood donated a string of songs to several independently released compilations such as 1997's Settling the DC Score, 1999's Anti-Racist Action Benefit and more into the new millennium. After inking a recording contract with Dreamworks in 2000, Greenwood released his debut full-length effort, Citizen Cope, in 2002. (His actual first full-length album recorded in 1997 was never released by Capitol.) The album spawned promising songs like “If There's Love” and “Contact” and revealed Clarence Greenwood or Citizen Cope to be an unconventional artist definitely worth listening to. Greenwood had more contract issues, as he didn't mesh with Dreamworks and thought the label mishandled his record, thus he bought out of his contract with money from an advance with his soon-to-be-label Arista. Unfortunately, the label saga continued as things with Arista didn't pan out either and he jumped label again, this time to RCA.

After label jumping for a number of years, Clarence Greenwood moved to RCA and released The Clarence Greenwood Recordings in September 2004. One song from the album, “Son's Gonna Rise,” was used in a GM Pontiac television commercial and The Clarence Greenwood Recordings made the number 27 spot on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. Other standout singles were “Bullet and a Target,” “Pablo Picasso” and “Penitentiary.” In 2006, still with RCA, Greenwood released Every Waking Moment. The album made the Top 100 of the Billboard 200 at number 69 and included gems like “Brother Lee” and Awe.”

In the same vein as artists like G. Love, Mat Kearney and Everlast, Clarence Greenwood is known for his penchant for blues and rock with slight hip-hop tendencies. The singer/songwriter may confuse fans with his alter ego, but one thing is for sure, his music is attracting fans of both the blues and hip-hop crowds. To see him live, get your Citizen Cope tickets soon!