The songs on Chuck Prophet’s new release, Wake the Dead, underwent a long gestation period. He was getting ready to tour behind his last album, 2020’s The Land That Time Forgot, when he was told he had lymphoma. “I was having issues with my voice, and I was tired,” Prophet recalled. “I wasn’t feeling like my old self, but I pushed it out of my mind.  “They found a mass in my lower intestine on the eve of the tour,” he continued. “I was completely unprepared. That led to six months of chemo. I’m now in remission, but they’re keeping an eye on me. At one time I felt immortal, or something like it. Now I try to think of every day as a gift.” While he recovered, listening to music kept him upbeat. “The Covid lockdown, and my treatment, afforded me time to really dig into the music,” Prophet said. “I kept returning to cumbia. It never failed to lift my spirits. It’s in the air outside all the taquerias in the Mission. I’m not qualified to go into the history of the music, but I dig it.” Prophet discovered cumbia with the help of ¿Qiensave?, the band from Salinas that backs him up on Wake the Dead. “My manager, Daniel Strickland, told me to catch them at a gig in the Mission. I became enamored with their music and introduced myself. They invited me down to Salinas, and we’d jam,” he said. “They taught me alternate chords that bring out the Latin flavor. I taught them a little bit about Eddie Cochran. Eventually, we played a few gigs together. They were a blast.” When he got back on his feet, it was time to make another record. Prophet went into the studio at 25th Street Recording in Oakland with his band, the Mission Express—which consisted of Stephanie Finch on vocals, Vox organ, piano and guitar; Kevin White on bass; Vicente Rodriguez on drums and vocals; and James DePrato on guitar and lap steel—and the players from ¿Qiensave?: Alejandro “Flaco” Gomez on bajo sexto and guitar; Ricardo Cortez on drums; Mario Cortez on güira, keys and vocals; Carlos Cortez on guitar and vocals; and William Cortez on bass. “We often had as many as eight people tracking at the same time,” Prophet said. “We’d knock things around. Maybe by the fourth or fifth take it would start to take shape, or we might change up the instrumentation a little bit. Get it up on its feet to where it’s good enough to criticize.” He added, “Sensitive musicians have the ability to adjust what they’re doing, so that was the process. All under the watchful eye of my co-producers Matt Winegar [bass, drums, guitar, keys] and Brad Jones [keys, bass]. They kept us between the lanes, although we did go on some 20-minute jams that got kind of unruly.” Most of the songs on Wake the Dead were written over the past few years, many with his longtime collaborator, klipschutz. Some arrangements took off from the sketches he’d laid down on previous demos. Other songs he played live on his guitar, in the studio, with the musicians jumping in to add their ideas. The title track is a cumbia, introduced by a tapping cowbell, accordion and muted bassline. Prophet’s casual vocal describes the comfort to be found in a good tune and good friends. “It was rewritten in the studio,” he said. “The chorus was anemic, so we dynamited it, and the new one explodes.” Written with DePrato, “Same Old Crime” blends cumbia, rock and a variety of Latin rhythms, with the members of ¿Qiensave? echoing Prophet’s chorus in Spanish. DePrato’s tolling guitars and Prophet’s forlorn vocal give the tune a spiritual aura. “It reminds me of the power of prayer,” Prophet said. “I believe in it.” The band dips into the sound of the ’50s for “One Lie for Me, One for You,” a doo-wop tune in 6/8 with a twangy guitar solo, while “Sugar into Water” is a rocker with a Tex-Mex backbeat, with Gomez adding a bit of surf guitar to the mix. “Brad Jones played Vox organ on this one, paying homage to Augie Meyers, from the Sir Douglas Quintet,” Prophet said. After the album drops, Prophet will tour Europe with ¿Qiensave? and the Mission Express. “During the recording, we ended up like a blended family, so we’ll all be performing together,” Prophet said. “We’ve got the songs on the record to play, plus a few cumbia standards that we make our own. Also some jams that can be stretched out into psychedelic workouts. I’m still slave to Brill Building classism, so I like a three-and-a-half-minute song but, on stage, a lot of that goes out the window.” ‘Wake the Dead’ will be released by Yep Roc Records on Friday, Oct. 25. Prophet and ¿Qiensave? will play Berkeley’s Amoeba Music on Friday, Oct. 25, at 5pm; and The Chapel in San Francisco on Dec. 28. More info at: chuckprophet.com.