Articles & Reviews

Chuck Brodsky belongs to that select bunch of singer-songwriters that can't seem to be doing anything wrong at all. Time and time again his offerings are of such endearing beauty, that we'd gladly like to think of ourselves as fans of his for life. Brodsky himself likes to describe his music as folk, but the instruments used in his songs link him explicitly to Americana as well. Give “Tulips For Luch” a spin after listening to something by the likes of Jeff Talmadge, Greg Brown or Bill Morrissey and you'll know exactly what we mean. With the latter of that triplet Brodsky's also sharing a rather unusual nasal way of singing. A blessing or a curse? Who's to say? Some people will adore him for that, others will find it hard to like. It's a matter of personal taste really. Fortunately Brodsky is one hell of a storyteller, who will have all initial resistance melt away like snow in the sun. His songs are in fact more like short stories put to music than songs in the literal sense of that word. “Tulips For Lunch” contains twelve of those, one better than the other. Nick Annis's “In The Beginning” being the only one not to be written by Brodsky himself. You'd like to know what the highlights are? We're not even going to try to start summing them up! The album in fact is one big highlight! And it should quickly gain a lot of good friends among both folk and Americana fans. We've got it marked already as one those records not to be forgotten when it comes to making up our year's end lists. That should tell the whole story…

(Benny Metten, Ctrl. Alt. Country e-zine, Belgium, www.ctrlaltcountry.be