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Chuck McCabe earns Woody Guthrie award

By Mary Ann Cook

NATIONAL MUSIC AWARD: Los Gatos songwriter/singer Chuck McCabe has won first place in the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition for 2002. The award is given annually for material that reflects the spirit of Woody Guthrie. The prizewinning song is called "Minimum Wager."

"It was a long shot," McCabe says. "It's a long song--five minutes--so I didn't expect it to win." And yet, "It was past the time the winners were to be announced and I was scanning through the competition website and saw my name. I nearly fell on the floor. It was late at night, but I called everyone I thought was still awake to tell them."

The official word came later. The competition brings $500 and a chance to "rub elbows with the Big Boys," as he puts it. He'll be playing at the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Festival this summer in Okemah, Okla., Guthrie's hometown.

McCabe, 57, has been performing since he was a teenager under the spell of the Kingston Trio. He's a comic and musician, a banjo and guitar player who writes his own songs. In the Los Gatos area since 1970, he now lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a regular performer locally.

He'll be at The Cats Restaurant March 6 and 13 and at Carry Nation's March 14. His latest CD is Bad Gravity Day, performed with Maria Muldaur, who is up for a W.C. Handy Blues Award. McCabe wrote all the songs on the CD. His company, Woodshed Productions, can be reached at 408.358.2427.

Here's a sample from "Minimum Wager": "She looked older, and tired, and a little bit wired, drinkin' coffee just to get herself through/That long second shift that she'd sure like to miss, but the baby needs new shoes/She's a minimum wager/Just hangin' on/Minimum wager/Standing on the bottom rung/The days are long but the years just fly/Hush little baby, don't you cry/Oh, but it's hard when you're just gettin' by/Everybody's got money but you."

FAMOUS FACES: A publicist near Hollywood is bound to have clients with familiar names and faces. That's true of two of the six Leslie girls who graduated from Los Gatos High School. One of them, Marleah Leslie, recently married Josh Goldstein, a comedy writer. The ceremony and reception were held at the Opera House in Los Gatos.

Marleah, LGHS '79, owns Marleah Leslie & Associates, an entertainment public relations firm. Her husband writes films and sitcoms. And thus it was that the guest list included Jim Carrey, Tim Allen and Tom Green, he of the short-lived marriage to Drew Barrymore.

This trio was spotted around town one recent weekend, particularly in the downtown eateries near the Toll House, where they were quartered. Most observers thought they were here for the Los Gatos Film Festival. Nope, that's held in the fall. However, Cinequest, San Jose's film festival, was about to get under way.

But no, they were here strictly for the nuptials. The Leslies are like a latter-day Jane Austen novel, what with the plethora of available daughters--since two are now married, the count is down to four. Sisters Alison Leslie and Heather De Masi were maids of honor.

The other sisters, Jennifer Leslie, Coleen Leslie and Talitha Thomas, were also in attendance. The bride's parents, Malcolm and Beverly Leslie, held the rehearsal dinner in their home. Their father is a surgeon, operating out of Los Gatos Community Hospital, among others.

Alison works for her sister's PR firm, while Heather teaches school. The groom wrote the George Burns film 18 Again, the TV movie Catch a Falling Star, and episodes of The Jamie Foxx Show.

ANOTHER AWARD: Yet another award for graphics guru Los Gatan Rick Tharp--this one from Cinequest, called The Volunteer Maverick Award. It was presented to the graphic designer at the conclusion of the recent 14th annual Cinequest.

More than 500 volunteers are part of the Cinequest Festival, and each year one is recognized. Tharp created the graphic identity for Cinequest and directed the art side of the website and ad campaign. His studio designed T-shirts, posters and programs for the film festival.

He hasn't been affected by the recent economic downturn, he says, since so much of his work is volunteer.

OLYMPIAD: More Olympians coming up: standouts in the fields of art. The Olympiad of the Arts is open to high school, community college and lower division college students throughout the county. Initiated by Sen. James Phelan, founder of Montalvo, and Professor Henry Meade Bland in 1928, at that time, it was held every four years.

Now it's yearly, as though to confirm their belief that the Bay Area would become the Athens of the West. For entry guidelines, call the West Valley Mission Colleges Foundation at 408.741.2066 or visit http://www.missioncollege.org/community/olympiad.

LUNCH COMBO: The Los Gatos History Club and the American Association of University Women will combine forces with a luncheon March 20 at the History Club clubhouse featuring Bonda Lewis' Jane Austen program. Coordinators include Marie Gordon and Billie Untiedt of the History Club; and Diane McLaughlin and Gladys Bernyk of AAUW.

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