Chuck Prophet to bring ‘Temple’ to Salem's Parkway Brewing Co.

The road is littered with bands that imploded after relationship troubles. Rare are the acts that can keep it rolling when a married couple is at least half of the act.

That’s not been a problem for singer, songwriter and rocker Chuck Prophet and his wife, Stephanie Finch, a singer, guitarist and keyboardist. The pair has been recording and touring together for years. Prophet is a member of Finch’s band, too.

“It probably hasn’t helped make things more romantic, but it has turned us into Army buddies,” Prophet said. “We sit around and talk about all the crazy [stuff] that has happened, you know.

“But I think we get along pretty well on tour, more than we do really at home, because there’s a sort of Marine-like drill to the whole thing.”

The couple, along with Prophet’s band, Mission Express, hits Salem on Wednesday for a show at Parkway Brewing Company. Roanoke-based My Radio opens the show, which had been scheduled for the Daleville Town Center Music Pavilion.

Prophet is touring behind a new album, “Temple Beautiful,” a musical tribute to his adopted hometown, San Francisco. The title is a reference to a long-demolished punk rock club where a young Prophet saw some very influential shows.

When he was working on the song, Prophet thought that the club Temple Beautiful had the same address as the former People’s Temple of the murderous cult leader Rev. Jim Jones. As such, it figures heavily in the song “Willie is Up At Bat,” and pairs Jones with baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who was a San Francisco Giant.

Co-writing the album with Kurt Lipschutz in a small office without an Internet connection, the resulting album is “Google-pure, Wikipedia-free,” Prophet said.

Since the record’s release, people “have taken great pleasure” in correcting him. Temple Beautiful, a former synagogue, was actually next door to the People’s Temple, as well as next door to Bill Graham’s Fillmore West.

“I figured out early, on, well, this isn’t journalism,” Prophet said. “We either hire a fact-checker [laughs], or we just go.”

Go to blogs.roanoke.com/cutnscratch to hear a podcast with Prophet, including streaming music from “Temple Beautiful” and its preceding release, “Let Freedom Ring!”

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