WHO: Citizen Cope

WHEN: 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday

WHERE: Cat's Cradle, 300 E. Main St., Carrboro

TICKETS: Maybe next time. Both shows are sold out.

BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

For the fourth album from Citizen Cope, aka Clarence Greenwood, the acoustic-blues-rock singer and songwriter went with a new label. His own. No more major label for him. Cope, a nickname he has had since childhood, started Rainwater Recording for his newest album, “The Rainwater LP.”

This is the way to go, he thinks, from now on. He still paid everyone involved the same as he would if he had major label backing and used the same musicians and studio. On a label, he never felt restricted artistically.

"The freedom part is the actual ownership," Cope said in a phone interview Wednesday. He'll launch his new tour from Carrboro next week, with two soldout shows Tuesday and Wednesday. "Once it gets into the marketplace, it just becomes a situation that, you know, you have different people's opinions and different people's ideas, and your first instinct is put into question," he said. Even though those people might also be invested in you, it's not enough. "People become so far deluded, it's hard to listen to them."

So while Cope might go elsewhere for distribution, producing from now on will be his own.

"Major labels are a dying breed and it's all going to come back to this," he said. Other musicians will have a tough time giving up those large money advances, he said. "But in the end, the music is so valuable and at the end of the day the music is so important." Cope is considering putting together a production team for others' work on Rainwater, too.

The new album, of the same name as his label, has 10 songs. The third track, "I Couldn't Explain Why," has an urgency in the song, inspired by the times and how he personally feels, Cope said.

"We're in this lifetime quest to find answers and sometimes we'll never know," he said. The song is about uncertainty and being thrown into something where you have to act and have to move, he explained.

Cope's last CD, "Every Waking Moments" was released in 2006. In 2004, "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings" included "The Son's Gonna Rise" featuring Carlos Santana, and his first album was self-titled. His songs "Let the Drummer Kick" and "Bullet and a Target" have been featured in films and on television.

Cope said that his three previous albums made a cumulative impact. He has spent much of the past four years touring, and will promote this album on tour as well. But he might not wait as long before his next recording.

"I'd like to say I'll make a record next year but I really want to dedicate getting this record out and touring. And I really feel good about this album," he said.