Chandler Travis

Chandler Travis was born in New York City and his family moved to Connecticut when he was a child.^[11] His father worked as a textile salesman, his mother condensed books for Reader's Digest and his sister, Deborah Travis, is a nurse.^[11] Travis was influenced by jazz music from a young age; Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Ray Charles were among his favorite musicians, and he began playing guitar at the age of 13.^[1][11][12] In Connecticut, he attended prep schools (Taft, along with Steve Shook; and Forman School.) At Forman, Travis played guitar in a garage band that played from 1966-1968 called The Good Fairies, later renamed The St. James Infirmary.^[13] He played his first show at a coffee house at age 15, and had his first paying gig at age 16.^[12]

Travis has been a Cape Cod resident since the early 1970s.^[1] He continues performing, mostly in small New England venues, as a lead member of the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, the Chandler Travis Three-O, the Chandler Travis Philharmonette,^[14] and the Catbirds.^[7]

Travis moved to Boston to attend Boston University.^[15] There he became friends with Steve Shook and the two formed the acoustic-comedy group Travis, Shook and the Club Wow, in 1969.^[12][11] The group wrote folk-rock music with comedic, whimsical lyrics, and created several recurring characters.^[16][11] They quickly gained popularity playing shows at campuses across the Northeast United States,^[16] and were opened for by artists such as Bruce Springsteen,^[17][18] and the E Street Band.^[12] They appeared on The Dick Cavett Show,^[19] The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,^[11][5] and The Midnight Special.^[5] In 1972 the group released their only contemporaneous full-length album, The Essential Travis, Shook and the Club Wow, along with several other musicians including members of NRBQ.^[20] Tom Staley, the drummer from NRBQ, joined them on tour for a period of time, as did Rikki Bates (also performed as Vince Valium, formerly known as Rich Bates)^[21] who has been a frequent drummer in Travis' collaborations ever since.^[22][11]

Starting July 29, 1971,^[23] they were booked as the opening act for Dave Van Ronk for a three-day set at a coffee house in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, called The Main Point.^[5] Van Ronk had to cancel last minute and the club owner called in George Carlin, who had opened a series of shows at the same venue earlier that month, as an emergency replacement headliner.^[5][23] Travis and Shook nearly missed the set, being detained by police en route to the show for marijuana possession which the police confiscated; however, they did not find several tablets of MDA (a drug similar to MDMA) which the duo shared with Carlin, who smoked marijuana with them in return.^[5] After the set Carlin was so impressed with the group that he signed them as his opening act, and they toured with him until 1981, including a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1974.^[5][24]

Carlin appeared on several tracks released by the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, such as "Tarnation", a track made from a blethering voicemail Carlin left Travis spoken in alien-mimicking phrases.^[10][25][26] They continued working together until Carlin's death in 2008.^[27] Travis wrote and recorded the theme songs for The George Carlin Show, and Carlin's TV pilot, Apt. 2c,^[28][29] and wrote two additional songs for the show performed by Brian Doyle-Murray.^[30]

Travis and Shook met with drummer Rikki (Rich) Bates in 1978 and began working on a new, more serious band focused on pop-rock.^[22] Originally with Eric Rosenfeld on the guitar they went by the name The Susan Anton People; they were joined by Johnny Spampinato a couple of years later and became The Incredible Casuals.^[6] After a couple of singles, the "Let'S Go Summer Fun Maxi-EP" was released in 1982.^[31] Shook then left the group and was later replaced by Aaron Spade.^[6] In 1983 and '84, the group produced a monthly mail-order cassette subscription called the Inedible Casserole series in which they recorded and released a new album every other month.^[32] The Casuals played at a club called the Wellfleet Beachcomber in Wellfleet for 35 years every Sunday during summer months.^{[27][33][34][35]} Spampinato joined NRBQ in 1994; however, the Casuals continued to play part-time while their members focused on other projects for over 20 years until 2014.^[36]

Over the years, The Casuals were joined on stage by guest singers, including their soundman, Chris Blood, who had a recurring feature as "The White Prince," performing unusually inept covers of classic songs, with the Casuals credited as the Brain Bats of Venus,^[6][33] and they have released two albums on Sonic Trout Records: You've Got a Friend: The White Prince Story, and Resurrection!^[10]

In 1996, the house band of the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a rhythm section led by Dinty Child.^[2] The club had a guest position that rotated weekly; Child was joined by Travis for one of these positions and by Travis' suggestion Child recruited a full brass section, leading to the formation of Chandler Travis Philharmonic.^[37][38] The Lizard Lounge resident band position was next filled by Session Americana.^[39]

Travis has created two smaller versions of the Philharmonic: the Chandler Travis Three-O, and the Chandler Travis Philharmonette; each group mostly plays different material with unique styles.^[40][41] The groups are known for regularly performing in brightly colored pajamas, smoking jackets, and hats.^[1][12][42] The Philharmonic in particular is a high-energy, theatrical group, often engaging with the audience in quirky ways during their performances like the way they present their tip jar; it is taped to a Roomba robot vacuum and roams the audience randomly and was dubbed the Honey Bunny 6000 by its inventor, trumpetist Kami Lyle.^[43]

The Philharmonic usually consists of nine members, currently, Chandler Travis (guitar/vocals), Alex Brander (drums), John Clark (upright bass), Fred Boak (vocals), Cliff Spencer (keyboards), Dinty Child (mandocello/mandolin/accordion/cello), and their three-piece horn section known as The June Trailer Dancers;^[44][45] Berke McKelvey (clarinets/saxophones/keys), Kami Lyle (trumpet), and Bob Pilkington (trombone).^[46]

Fred Boak (also known as "The Valet") was a longtime fan of the group before joining them. After befriending the group he began selling their merchandise at shows and managing Travis' website.^[45] Boak became a harmony singer with the Philharmonic's many versions around 2001 when he was called in as a last-minute substitute, and now performs regularly,^[37] although he describes his role as “being on stage, with a drink in my hand, looking good.”^[9] Boak replaced Travis as the musical director of The Cape Cod Christmas Cavalcades for the Homeless in 2018.^[9]

Chandler Travis Three-O is a quartet that was created to play smaller venues than Chandler Travis Philharmonic, it being difficult to find venues with the budget and stage-space to fulfill the Philharmonic's needs.^[41] Although they have rearranged songs from the Philharmonic to work with the quartet, there is enough material that the Three-O has quite a different repertoire from the Philharmonic, and they have released two albums.^[41] The scaled-down group is: Chandler Travis (guitar/vocals), Fred Boak (vocals), John Clark (upright bass), Berke McKelvey (saxes/clarinets/keyboards), and sometimes Kami Lyle (trumpet, vocals).^[47]

The Catbirds are a simple guitar/bass/drums quartet, play rootsier, louder rock, a bit closer to the Casuals in style than any of Travis's other current groups. They've released a couple of EPs and 2012's full-length "Catbirds Say Yeah". The Catbirds' current lineup is: Travis (bass/vocals), Steve Wood (guitar/vocals), Mark Usher (guitarist) and Sam Wood (drums).^[48]

*Recorded, with Chris Blood on vocals, under the name of The White Prince with the Bat Brains From Venus.^[6][10]

*Lester was recorded by Lester, a group led by Steve Wood from 1992-1993 with members: Travis, Jay Cournoyer and Cliff Letsche.^[10]

**Bocce and Bourbon: The Comforting Songs of ChandlerTravis and David Greenberger was co-written with David Greenberger.