The Chandlers

Anything that can be called a community is held together not just by having something in common but by people who give to and nurture that common interest. In ways both publicly visible and everyday, there has been a Chandler in Bowling Green either making music or supplying musical goods — and often both — since the 1960s. The contributions made to local music by Chick Chandler and his son David span five decades and have helped support and shape the music scene.

Both Chick and David Chandler are guitarists that have performed on stages large and small in the south central Kentucky region. Both are veterans of the retail music business who have enabled countless people to pursue their musical muses to the limits of their abilities and drive. Through a variety of bands and stores, from pioneering TV to contemporary support of local music on radio, the Chandlers have collectively had quite a hand in local music.

Chick Chandler, whose real name is Carol David Chandler, started playing at age 12 in his native Slaughters in Hopkins County (the same home town of independent artist and WKU grad Chris Knight). In 1953 at age 16, he started playing square dances there, and he also played on a radio show in Madisonville. The following year, Chick had his own radio show, the Chick Chandler Show, on the same radio station.

Chick played the thumbpicking style of guitar that developed in Muhlenberg County, influenced by Mose Rager and popularized by Merle Travis and Chet Atkins. Chick played with Spider Rich in 1953, who first taught Chick thumbpicking. Chick played on the first That Muhlenberg Sound compilation album in 1959 for Bobby Anderson on Summit Records (Anderson would later co-produce a second That Muhlenberg Sound compilation in 1992, and his That Muhlenberg Sound label offers scores of thumbpicking music releases).

In 1967, Chick started in the music store business in Hopkinsville. He served as manager of Burkhart Music Co. there until 1969, when he was transferred to the Burkhart store in Bowling Green. That same year Chick started playing with Otis Blanton, a liaison that would leave its imprint on the area music scene in more ways than one.

Back then, Channel 13 was known by the call letters WLTV and had live music shows. Chick told the Amplifier that Otis Blanton and the Blue Star Rangers, for whom Chick played guitar, played on one such show, a TV program sponsored by Wickes Lumber. Chick still gets comments and recognition from his days on the Wickes Lumber show. Some of the guests that Otis Blanton and the Blue Star Rangers had on the show included Bill Carlisle, Lonzo and Oscar, and several steel guitar players from Nashville.

In 1970, Chick went to work at Fairview Plaza Music Center for Forrest Borders. Two years later, Chick and Otis Blanton started another music partnership, opening the Blanton & Chandler music store on Main Street next to Bowling Green Bank. Blanton & Chandler went through several locations but enjoyed a lengthy run of business, open until 1989.

Chick had his own band in 1976 called the Chandlers. By now, David was growing up in a music store, “running around tearing stuff up in [Dad’s] store,” quipped David. Chick chimed in that David started “playing guitar as a baby,” wearing a blister on his thumb from a guitar he’d carry around all the time.

David started playing out at age 20. Where his father was a thumbpicker, David’s main playing focus was country lead guitar. He stated his influences as Merle Haggard; Sid Croslin, an independent artist from Morgantown who showed David his first Haggard licks; and his father Chick, to whom he attributes his guitar playing career. David said that Jim Morris, a/k/a former wrestler Hillbilly Jim, also showed him some licks. His first outdoor gig was a memorable setting, performing at the same venue in Tennessee that Bill Monroe played regularly every Tuesday. David played rhythm and acoustic guitar in the band he was with, and they followed Monroe on that night.

In 1990, David played in Streamline, a country outfit that included Mark Haynes, Joe Jones, Mike Chaffin, and Travis McIntosh; John Guion ran sound for the band. Streamline had a steady four-night-a-week gig at Manhattan Towers (where Tattle Tales is now) and played a year at the Barn (where Silverado is now). Around 1994, David hooked up with the Kantucky Band with Cody Hayes. He also played in .3006 (pronounced Thirty-Ought-Six).

But David had other responsibilities. A year before Blanton & Chandler closed its doors, Chick got involved in another music store, starting Kentucky Music in 1988. Now David was the owner, and he dropped his playing down to fill-in work. He continues to do fill-ins, mostly with country groups like a recent job with the River Rats, but he will “rock it out” sometimes filling in with Lyn Wilson’s group Personal Freedom. Chick came out of retirement from retail four years ago, doing guitar repair for Kentucky Music which he continues to do.

Kentucky Music has supported area music in ways other than selling instruments and amplifiers. Up until the recent sale of the Gator, Kentucky Music was a sponsor of Live and Local; they currently sponsor Friday night gospel shows at Libby’s. Kentucky Music has donated the use of sound equipment for benefits like Relay for Life. In the past, Kentucky Music made rehearsal rooms available at the store; “Different groups used to roll through here” said David.

Chick and David Chandler have played with a lot of musicians whose names are memorable to varying degrees. Some of the musicians Chick has played with, in addition to those previously mentioned, include Gene Francis, Odell Martin, Royce Morgan (who played with Jim Reeves), Paul Yandel (who played with the Louvin Brothers), Chicken Hawk Murphy, Freddy Murphy (who bought his first guitar from Chick), Glen Womack, Curly Thomas (fiddler who played on Bob Wills records), and Mike Brooks.

You’ll find Chick these days working on guitars at Kentucky Music, and David will be helping someone with their musical equipment purchases and sometimes guesting with area bands that need his axemanship for the night. Later this year, you’ll find Chick on a pair of album releases — one on the That Muhlenberg Sound label and a second of his own material on CDC Recordings that he dubs “the Warren County Sound.” Chick plays regularly in Drakesboro at the Thumbpicking Jamboree every second Saturday of the month. Whatever they happen to be doing at a given time, you’ll find the Chandlers well involved in local music.

Don Thomason is a freelance writer, songwriter and performing musician living in Dunbar. Don is host of the Backroads Troubadour, Saturday mornings on WLBQ-AM.

Photos:

Father and Son Chick and David Chandler

photo by India Hooks

Otis Blanton and the Blue Star Rangers on the set of

WLTV Channel 13’s Wickes Lumber show.

Otis Blanton and the Blue Star Rangers

Streamline

Don Thomason is a writer and musician living in Dunbar. Visit him at www.myspace.com/donthomasonmusic