Singer Chuck Brodsky brings sunshine and pixie dust to SLO County

I remember the phone interview I did with Chuck Brodsky about five years ago. Introducing myself, I told the Asheville, N.C., singer-songwriter how I learned of his music.

I was searching the used CD bins at Boo Boo Records looking for material for a mix tape of radio songs. The title “Radio” caught my eye. I gave it a quick listen — it also had tunes about Christmas and an obscure baseball player-turned-OSS spy — and took it home.

“So you took a chance,” Brodsky observed.

Castoro Cellars gig
The events room at North County’s Castoro Cellars was filled with about 100 people on Saturday night for a SLO Folks-hosted concert featuring Brodsky, who was making his first visit to the county. It’s a comfy and low-key spot for a show as exemplified by the gray tabby cat that likes to sleep on stage, and the coffee and cookies that the concert promoters serve at intermission.

Steve Key, master of ceremonies for the show, asked for a show of hands of those who had never heard of Brodsky before, and nearly half the room raised them. By the end of the 2-1/2 hour show, however, most would agree that they were glad that they also “took a chance” on his music.

Brodsky is a talented songwriter who can craft tunes as comfortable on first listening as a well-worn flannel shirt. His tunes combine a love of history and wry (“nudge nudge, wink wink”) observations about life with infectious melodies. In 15 years on the folk-music circuit, he’s honed his craft and gained a reputation for his wit, political irony as well as insightful baseball tunes about obscure aspects of the game assuring that they are not lost to the ages.

A political opener
He opened the show with the timely “He Came to Our Town,” a song off 2000’s “Last of the Old Time” album about a political candidate’s visit:

“He came to our town
For maybe an hour
The streets all got swept
And they planted some flowers
Babies he kissed
To the people he waved
And he stopped
At a Civil War General’s grave

“And after an hour
They whisked him away
Things went back to normal
Over two or three days
The homeless returned
To living outside
And the flowers that got planted
All wilted and died”

The song drew laughs and nods of approval from the crowd peppered liberally with knowing gray-hairs and aging boomers.

He followed up with the first of three baseball tunes. “Dock Ellis’ No-No” is a true story about the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher’s no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970. That was a noteworthy event made special by the fact that Ellis, today a drug rehab counselor, was high on LSD.

And the admitted “unabashed Philadelphia sports fan” continued the sports theme with “The Great Santa Snowball Debacle of 1968,” a song that revisits the infamous Dec. 15, 1968, football game where the Eagles hosted the Minnesota Vikings. The incident remains an embarrassment to the City of Brotherly Love because angry fans, upset at yet-another losing (2-12) season, booed and pelted a man dressed as Santa Claus with snowballs during the halftime show.

“He gave the crowd the finger
And stood there like a giant
‘You'll all get nothing for Christmas’
He yelled out in defiance.”

And just as quickly as he had people giggling and tapping their toes, the tone turned serious as he quieted the audience, including many who were consuming bottles of Castoro’s “Dam Fine Wine,” with a new tune that will be a part of an album he’s working on to commemorate the Holocaust. By the conclusion of that song the room was absolutely silent.

A winning combination
And that was his M.O. all night, setting up listeners with a smile — a tune about garbage (“Take It Out Back”), litigation (“Talk to My Lawyer”) or “carrot nibblers and hicks” (“The Come Heres & The Been Heres”), and then knocking them out with something poignant about the mundane, a tune guaranteed to turn on the waterworks: From a simple story about playing ping pong with his dad and the evolution of the father-son relationship (“The Point”) to another about a developmentally disabled black man (“Radio”) who became a hero in his South Carolina community after being adopted by a white high school football coach. (This song made the soundtrack of the 2003 Cuba Gooding Jr. film of the same name, in which Brodsky has a cameo.)

One-two. Wham-bam. Set 'em up and take 'em down — an emotional roller coaster that left the audience smiling and longing for one more round ... yeah, Chuck. Yeah!

All night long, Brodsky remained in charge, a wry smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes while standing on stage, with nothing but a microphone and a bar stool topped with cups of water. He carried his six-string as well as a gossamer bag of deftly constructed songs and the stories behind them — music that warmed the audience on an otherwise wet, chilly and uninviting evening.

A 2 1/2 hour show
He played 21 songs from his seven albums. The set list included a half-dozen tracks from his latest, 2006’s “Tulips for Lunch, ” a pair of new songs, as well as one of his earliest songwriting efforts: 1981’s “We Are Each Other’s Angels.”


“I hope I see you later — ’cause it’s time for me to go,” he sang as he surveyed the crowd, looking some members in the eye to underscore the point as the show wound down.

“That’s my ride that just pulled over — and it sure was good to know you
“So go answer your calling — go and fill somebody’s cup
And if you see an angel falling — won’t you stop and help them up?
“We are each other’s angels — we meet when it is time
“We keep each other going — and we show each other signs”

Brodsky thanked everyone for turning out, adding “I do hope to come back,” to which the audience applauded in hearty agreement.

He returned for an encore of what may be his best-known tune, which was written during the 15 years he lived in the Bay Area. It came to Brodsky one day while idling in traffic upon the Bay Bridge, a burning frustration in search of a target. The result was “Blow ’em Away,” a 1985 road-rage classic popular with Doctor Demento, which has been covered by David Wilcox, among others.

It was a fitting end to this performer’s stellar arrival, because on his first visit to SLO County, Chuck Brodsky blew us all away.

• • •

Chuck Brodsky has plans for several new CDs.

He hopes to release an as-yet untitled double live album within the next couple of months. It will feature a few new tracks. He is also working on a disc of Holocaust-related material that was inspired by a visit to the Holocaust History Museum at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem memorial, a facility that focuses on the personal tragedies of the Nazi genocide.

In addition, he is working on a follow-up to his critically acclaimed “Baseball Ballads” of 2002, which features 10 tracks of baseball music.

For more details visit Brodsky’s Web site at www.chuckbrodsky.com or www.myspace.com/chuckbrodsky.

— Jay Thompson

Photos by Jay Thompson.