Chuck’s got five albums to his name and a list of folk festival appearances from California to Ireland to Denmark to Israel, and all over Canada and the U.S. The songs on his latest CD, “The Baseball Ballads,” are not only about the players and the lore, but “about people — people who play baseball, or watch baseball — and the songs often become vehicles for larger messages” (Dirty Linen magazine). 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, from his debut CD in 1995.

Chuck grew up in the Philadelphia area. As a teenager he worked at a legendary folk club, The Main Point, where he met a lot of great songwriters and performers. 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.

In 1996, Chuck 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.

Chuck continues to tour full-time, building a loyal following wherever he plays. If you have not seen him yet, now’s the time to catch the man of whom The Performing Songwriter says, “Years from now, and in a perfect world, young up and coming folk singers may find themselves burdened with the tag — “the new Brodsky.”