Bubba's Bio

                I was born north of Birmingham, Alabama on November 19, 1955 to Bob and Hazel Chandler.  I have one sister, Robin.  I was nicknamed “Bubba” after my father’s best friend, Bubba Cole, who was killed in the Pacific during World War II.  I graduated high school in 1974 and moved to Kirksville, Missouri to join my parents who had moved there due to a job change.  It was there I was introduced to John Prine’s music and decided to get a guitar and learn a few chords.  After seeing that I did better with the ladies with a guitar in my hands, it kind of stuck.

                While attending Northeast Missouri State University on a debate scholarship, I visited Philadelphia for a competition.  I’ll never forget walking into a record store there and finding a Red, White and Bluegrass album with Grant and Ginger Boatwright.  Grant was a little older than me and lived right down the road in Palmerdale, Alabama.  There is a cut on the album called “The Palmerdale Postal Service.”  I snatched up the album and quickly started searching out bluegrass music.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Circle” album is still one of my all-time faves.

                My parents moved to Rocky Mount, Virginia in 1976 and I returned to Alabama.   After visiting them in their new home on Smith Mountain Lake, I decided that Virginia would be my new home.  It was here that I met Roger Handy and we became roommates in Ferrum, Virginia.  Roger introduced me to the Lost and Found band and I fell in love with their music immediately.  I remain a fan today. 

                One morning after being gone on tour, Roger came in with a handful of money, tossed it in the air and said, “It just ain’t worth it.”  I said, “Roger, you can't quit”, and then I quickly called Allen Mills and asked if I could take Roger’s place in the band.  I filled in from 1979 to 1983 when divorce and two little boys took me off the road.  Roger was eventually replaced by Steve Wilson.  During my time with the Lost and Found band, we toured Europe; had a Public Television show, and put out two albums which produced some of the staples of bluegrass music to this day.

                Since leaving bluegrass, I have drifted back to my folk and Southern rock roots, but I just had to include a remake of the Lost and Found’s classic, “Last Lonely Eagle” on my new project featuring the great Allen Mills, Gene Parker, and longtime violinist in George Strait’s Ace in the Hole band, Gene Elders.

                Hosting my own television show, “Friends, Neighbors and Music”, on Cable 12 out of Franklin County, Virginia, I had the pleasure of working with some of the finest musicians around – Ronnie Bowman, Dan Tyminski, Tim Austin, to name a few.  Somewhere during this time period, I recorded an album called  “Blue Umbrella” with Steve Shively of Fairystone Music and later did a ‘grass thing called Savannah with another one of my heroes, Spider Gilliam, and sidekicks Lynwood Lunsford, Roy Norton, Herschel Sizemore and Timmy Peade. 

                I am so pleased longtime friend and internationally-known Sammy Shelor decided to help me out on this project, as well as my old buddy and one of the best meat-and-potatoes guitarists and bassists anywhere, Jimmie Blankenship, and his son, Chris Blankenship.  Chris Blankenship, at 27, is one of those guys that come along once in a blue moon.  Listen to his guitar phrasings on “A Good Time” and “Somebody to Sing To”.  It’s way beyond his years.  The Breedlove he played on “A Good Time” (which I had to hock to Sammy and Mark to help finish this project) was played in E flat without a capo.  It’s just not right! Anyone considering recording anything should talk to Mountain Fever Studios in Willis, Virginia first.  In the words of Allen Mills, “They will treat you so many ways, you’ll have to like one of them!”

                The loss of two of my best friends in 2006, Mike Smith and Dempsey Young, prompted me to get in gear and finish a few ideas I had for songs.  Sorry to the purists about jumping genres on this album, but hey, that’s just Bubba.  Enjoy!

 The Real Reason I Left the Road