Album Notes

In 2006 Chicken Dinners was nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album by Just Plain Folks, an organization of some 40,000 Songwriters, Recording Artists, Music Publishers, Record Labels, and Performing Arts Societies.

As Chuck's third album on the BlahBlahWoofWoof label, Chicken Dinners marks a philosophical return to his childhood in the South, and his early musical years as a 5-string banjo picker in a bluegrass band. With a little banjo, a lot of his trademark fingerstyle guitar and homespun wit, the material fits comfortably into the Americana genre.

There are guest performances by veteran folkie Mary McCaslin as well as fiddlers Joe Weed (has played with David Grisman, Daryl Angor) and James Fingers Shupe (formerly with Dan Hicks). Bobby Black, from Asleep at the Wheel adds Hawaiian steel on one track. There is minimal percussion (mostly brushes on a snare) and dobro, fiddle, harmonica and mandolin round out the instrumentation for an overall woodsy, folkie sound.

Having won the prestigious Woody Guthrie songwriting competition for a topical song about the working poor (Minimum Wager) McCabe has proved he has a serious side too. However, most of the new material is down-home and humorous, with grandmas, dawgs and smokin' behind the backstop.

McCabe says:
"I'm writing about a lot of stuff that happened to me when I was a kid... I guess it took me this long to figure it all out!"

"Chuck's witty songwriting and unassuming style
combine with stellar guitar work to produce that
understated intelligence that we crave.

...and it makes you
hungry for chicken."
Bev Barnett, TrueWind Music