EAST TEXAS MENSA
MEETINGS
Date/Time:
Saturday, March 8, 2003, 7:45 PM
Place:
Tyler Wildwood Concert - Chuck Brodsky
Map LinkX
Doors open 7:30, music starts at 8. Mensans gather at 7:45 and go in together. www.CHUCKBRODSKY.com will acquaint you with the singer (see synopsis below). Wildwood Concerts play monthly, hosted by Tyler's Unitarian Church, near the corner of 5th St (US 64) and Old Omen Rd. From the east side of Tyler's Loop 323 go east on 5th St (US 64 - the Henderson Highway). Take the second right, Old Omen Rd. and the church will be on your right at 1629 Old Omen Rd. The concerts suggest an $8 donation at the door, $4 for children and students. Some of the donation goes to the musicians and some to local charities. Brodsky is a popular folk song writer and acoustic musician.
Date/Time:
Thursday, March 20, 2003, 7:00 PM
Place:
Golden Corral Restaurant, Sherman, Texas
Map LinkX
Meet with the TEXOMA AREA MENSA group Thursday March 20 at 7 pm at the Golden Corral Restaurant, US 82 East and Loy Lake Road (just east of Highway 75 between Sherman and Denison). It's on the SE corner of the intersection of Loy Lake Road and the frontage road of Highway 82 East. Just ask for the Mensa table! For more info call or e-mail Roger Powell or Terry McFadden.
www.CHUCKBRODSKY.com
"What tales this singer-songwriter from Philadelphia has...With insight and
good humor, he has taken these life experiences and distilled them into old
fashioned story songs brimming with wit and compassion." ----New York Times
With arresting songwriting, groove-oriented guitar playing, and a soulful,
compassionate voice, Chuck Brodsky quickly became a fixture on the national
acoustic music scene. In 1992 he won the Emerging Songwriter Award at the
Napa Valley Folk Festival in California. His debut CD, A Fingerpainter's
Murals (Waterbug Records, 1995) was a critical favorite with its collection
of vividly rendered stories--from a farmer losing his land ("Acre by Acre")
to a washed-up pitcher trying to hold on a little longer ("Lefty"). But the
song that cemented Brodsky's reputation as a funny and trenchant songwriter
was "Blow 'em Away," a delightfully nasty blues about a pistol-packing
commuter. The radio tip sheet The Maverick Report named it "Song of the
Year," and it made its way onto a number of compilation albums, including
Dr. Demento's "Basement Tapes. Singer-songwriter David Wilcox made the song
one of the highlights of his concerts and recorded it on his 1996 live
album, East Asheville Hardware. Chuck was invited to perform at New York's
Bottom Line as part of their prestigious "Required Listening" series. He was
also invited by Christine Lavin to contribute a cut to Shanachie's 1996
"Laugh Tracks" album. His songs appear on a number of other compilation CDs,
including three Fast Folk discs, two of The Leak Magazine's CDs, two
"American Impressionist Songwriters" CDs, and four "Diamond Cuts" albums of
baseball songs.
Chuck grew up in the Philadelphia area. As a teenager he worked at a
legendary folk club, The Main Point, where he was introduced to a lot of
great songwriters and performers (such as bluesman George Gritzbach and
Steve Forbert). Others who influenced Chuck include Bob Dylan, Nic Jones,
Jackson Browne, David Massengill, and further toward the literary side, Mark
Twain. They say that to tell great stories you have to live an adventurous
life. It's a tip that Chuck Brodsky took to heart. In 1981, he took his
guitar and hitchhiked to California. He's worked as a migrant fruit picker,
driven an ice cream truck, labored on an Israeli Kibbutz, worked for a book
distributor, was a bank courier (until he lost a check for ten million), and
spent two years streetsinging in Europe. In the process, Chuck learned what
all great writers know--that the best stories are the little things in the
lives of everyday people who are trying to muddle through with some grace.
Chuck's great gift as a writer is to infuse these stories with humanity and
humor, and to make them resonate profoundly with his listeners.
"One of the finest singer-songwriters in America. There are a lot of good
ones, but when it comes to the really great ones it boils down to a select
few- he's one of them"
--Larry Gross - Mountain Stage (National Public Radio)
In 1996, Chuck (who now lives near Asheville, North Carolina) signed with
Red House Records and released Letters in the Dirt, introducing us to great
characters such as a roadside peach vendor still wondering after thirty
years if he married the right woman ("Bill & Annie"), and the first white
baseball player in the Negro Leagues ("The Ballad of Eddie Klepp"). The
album earned critical raves, and articles about Chuck and his characters
appeared all over the country. His 1998 release, Radio, was even more widely
acclaimed for its great stabs at our laughable culture, like "The Come
Here's & the Been Here's," "Our Gods," and "On Christmas I Got Nothing." For
a three month period shortly after its release Radio was the 3rd most
frequently played album on Americana stations nationwide, according to The
Gavin Report.
Chuck's touring has broadened to include Canada, Ireland, and Israel. He's
played such prestigious festivals as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the
Strawberry Music Festival (CA), the Kerrville Folk Festival (TX) and the
Winnipeg Folk Festival, and has twice given concerts at the National
Baseball Hall of Fame. He's been a guest on nationally syndicated radio
programs such as Mountain Stage, Acoustic Cafe, and River City Folk. Kathy
Mattea recorded his song "We Are Each Other's Angels" (from "A
Fingerpainter's Murals") for a 1998 independent film entitled "Dear Mr.
Goodlife." Sara Hickman also recorded the song for her children's album
"Newborn" and for her "Spiritual Appliances" album. Chuck's song "Radio" was
used by NFL Films for a national broadcast on ESPN about a man with Down's
Syndrome who is adored by his whole community.
"He is an extroadinary talent in my opinion. I would place him in the
Dylan-Guthrie-Prine league without question. His lyrics are drawn from the
lives of everyday people and his acoustic guitar playing is quite amazing."
--BBC Belfast (Tony McAuley)
Last of the Old Time, Brodsky's third album for Red House (his fourth CD
overall) was released in the Summer of 2000. Chuck continues to tour
full-time, building a loyal following wherever he plays. His down to earth
presence, touching storytelling, and his dry, barb-witted social commentary
bring both tears and laughter to the listener...often during the course of
the very same song. The San Francisco Bay Guardian describes him as "A
genuine troubadour with no soap box, no urban boho contentions, and a few
axes to grind," adding that " Brodsky picks and grins with the best of the
Woody and Ramblin' Jack descendants."
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