Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chuck Brodsky. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chuck, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
On my first day of orientation at Pennsylvania State University, in a large room with probably a few hundred other incoming freshmen, I was sitting on the end of a row, by a window. On the stage in front of us we were being welcomed to Penn State by a man whose face and words I have no memory of. Just a few feet to my right, outside the window, were two students with guitars sitting cross-legged on the grass. Though I couldn’t hear them playing and singing, the joy on their faces spoke loudly to me. My attention kept being drawn toward them, and away from the fellow welcoming us to Penn State. I was being pulled in two directions at once, but the pursuit of joy won out. Right then and there I knew I was veering off from the path I had come there to follow, and that there was really nothing the university could teach me to support that choice. It took me a few months, but by the end of my 2nd trimester I dropped out of Penn State and enrolled in the school of life.
I had played piano my entire life, starting with lessons at age 5, but on this day in 1978, seeing those two students on the other side of the window from me, I understood that I’d need to switch over to guitar. The digital piano hadn’t yet been invented, and I realized then that as a piano based musician I’d always be at the mercy of whatever condition the pianos in the venues might be in. For every show I’d be playing a different instrument, and I’d already played enough out of tune pianos, and some with broken keys, to understand that I needed to get a guitar and learn to play it. A guitar would be an instrument I could take with me anywhere I’d go. I could be more or less self-sufficient. I also understood that it would take years of practice to become proficient enough on it to even consider playing professionally. And as a songwriter, nobody needed to tell me that I’d first need to go out and live life before I’d have anything to say about it that might be worth listening to. So I set myself on a “ten year plan” and drove myself hard, as if I were my own football coach or drill sergeant.. Every day I was able to see myself making progress, which reinforced the idea that the hard work would pay off. Whenever my fingers would get sore from playing, I’d imagine some football coach ordering me to do another ten push ups, and I’d keep going for a while longer.
My ten year plan actually took fourteen years, but that was mainly because I understood that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and I wanted to feel confident I’d be making a strong one. In the meantime, I played several open mics every week, for years, which allowed me to get valuable feedback for the songs I was writing and to gain experience performing in front of audiences. I was 32 when I decided I was ready to finally start touring.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’ve been writing songs since my senior year in high school. I started exploring the piano as a toddler and have played it my whole life. In college I picked up the guitar, which eventually became my primary instrument. I released my first of thirteen CDs in 1995 and have been touring full time as a solo singer-songwriter/storyteller since 1992. I’ve played concerts and festivals all across the US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Denmark, Israel, Lithuania, and Latvia. I grew up in Philadelphia, went to Penn State for a few months, and in 1981 I hitch-hiked to the San Francisco Bay Area, where I spent fifteen years. In 1995 I moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where I currently live.
Every song I’ve ever written has been meaningful to me in some way. I really only write when I’m moved by something, or when an idea feels important enough to drop everything else in my life so I can give it the time and intense focus it needs. I edit and rewrite a lot, and often the finished lyrics look nothing like the original version. Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” I read that as a young man and it’s had a lasting effect on me. A lot of hard work goes into writing a song, sometimes thirty or forty drafts. But my ultimate reward is that feeling I get when I can’t find anything more to improve and I’m proud enough of my work to finally sign my name to it. There’s no real fame or fortune to be had in Folk music, so those never would have been realistic goals. Trying to raise my bar as a writer, and that feeling I get when I know I’ve hit my mark, are mainly what drive me. I get a lot of joy from that. And I get a lot of joy sharing my songs and stories with audiences. I suppose it’s the pursuit of joy that’s really what it’s always been about for me, whether it be my own private joy in creating, or the joy of performing in public.
I like to listen to almost all types of music, and I’ve been influenced by everything I’ve ever heard. I hope my songs and stories will touch people, give them something to think about, and maybe illuminate something meaningful. For the most part I operate very much outside of the music “industry.” I’m just a guy with a guitar trying to honor the Folk tradition, and I feel blessed to have carved out a small niche for myself and to have been able to sustain it for all these years. I’m kind of old school, and I prefer to do business with a handshake. I’m grateful to have made a lot of friends along the way.
Baseball has been an incredible source of great stories for me. Two of my CDs are entirely Baseball story songs (The Baseball Ballads Vol. 1 and Vol. 2).
Another theme I’ve often written about is the Holocaust, with its many stories about the triumph of the soul, about survival, about good deeds, and even about the creation of art, amidst the horrors.
I like to pull from the entire spectrum of possible subject matter, but mainly I’m hoping to write songs about things that nobody else has written about. Some are funny, some are serious, and all of them are reflections of me. I tend to only write when an idea feels compelling. Sometimes a song will just demand to be written.
I suppose what I’m most proud of is that I haven’t compromised my art for the sake of appealing to a wider audience, and that I’ve kept raising my own bar. I’ve always been drawn to songwriters whose lyrics are more literary than what you might find in a typical pop song. Lyrics like that require more intense listening, and tend to appeal to a smaller niche audience who appreciate the art of songwriting. I’ve always accepted this.
I’ve trusted that things would work out for me if I held onto my integrity as, a writer, and also as a person, and that my songs would find the people they were meant to find. I’ve always represented myself, booked my own shows, made all of my own travel arrangements, and have driven endless miles from show to show. That’s taken most of my time, focus, and energy, leaving very little left over for promoting myself, which has always felt rather distasteful anyway. So most people have probably never heard of me. But even though I might be somewhat under the radar, I’ve lived a very charmed life. I’ve seen and learned a lot, I’ve met incredible people from all walks of life, and best of all, the ones my music has touched have let me know they love me, and I know that it’s for all the right reasons. I couldn’t be more grateful for that. I think it would be my very definition of success.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I first started my professional career as a touring singer-songwriter I was always trying to emulate my heroes. I tried to write like they did, I tried to dress like them, sing like them, talk like them, and I tried on all of their various stage mannerisms for size. I think that can be a useful way to grow as an artist, but then when it came time for me to start performing I felt like a phony. I can only imagine now what those audiences back then must have been thinking about me. But there was a night during my first year on the road when I had an epiphany on stage. I decided to just try standing firmly in my own shoes, not putting on any airs, and being nothing but my true self. I was naked, I was vulnerable, and I was honest. Everything was now stripped down to the bare essentials. It was just me, my guitar, and a room full of people. We were all in it together, and it felt so right. That’s when I discovered the real joy in performing for an audience. From that point on I was able to just relax and have fun on stage, without ever again having to worry about people seeing right through me, because I’d eliminated phoniness from the equation. And after that show was over, I had more people wanting to talk with me than I’d ever had before. I understood that they liked me for the right reasons now.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I enjoy finding interesting stories to tell that most people might not be aware of, especially those that have deeper social issues running through them. It’s a fun challenge to do this in verse, and get the lines to rhyme. One of my goals is to have perfect rhymes throughout a song, and to have the accent fall on the proper syllable of every word. I try never to use false rhymes, and never to force them.
I feel it’s important to stay somewhat rooted in the traditions, and many of my songs use the song forms that were used in old English and Irish ballads. But I also grew up with Rock & Roll, and I’ve listened to and absorbed music from all over the world, so hopefully the music to my songs reflects some of those influences too.
I’m sure it sounds like a cliche, but I’ve only ever wanted to be myself, retain my artistic integrity, and hopefully offer something a bit more real than just “show business.” I suppose that’s my mission. I love entertaining people though, and I always have a lot of fun during my concerts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chuckbrodsky.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckbrodsky
- Facebook: Music page – www.facebook.com/chuckbrodsky AND Personal page – www.facebook.com/chuck.brodsky.94
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChuckBrodsky99
- Other: www.bandsintown.com/chuckbrodsky
www.chuckbrodsky.bandcamp.com
open.spotify.com/artist/2I1XI3eYHcCcfVM4rXCrvK
www.patreon.com/chuckbrodsky
Image Credits
Vicki Dameron
David Schofield
Brad Burkons
Alan Gann
Holly Paul