By Nicole Garton
Oregon Daily Emerald
/ > hris Chandler doesn’t re
member trying out to be the
\^J University of Georgia mas
cot at age three, but he’s been told
he picked his nose and jumped off
the stage shouting, “I’m Super
man! I’m Superman!”
He didn’t get the part.
Decades later, Chandler has re
fined his act somewhat, but he
hasn’t lost that unpredictable
comic edge. Although you proba
bly won't hear him claim super
hero status, you may hear him
comment on the idolizing of Elvis
Presley.
Chandler and his band, the Con
venience Store Troubadours, will
capture the stage at the BUZZ Cof
fee House tonight with their outra
geous combination of poetry, mu
sic, humor and social commentary.
“We’re a roaming band of trou
badour tricksters from all over the
country,” Chandler de
scnoes. /vninereai
estate we own
between us is
one Ford van f
registered in |
New Orleans.” fl
The music of
dours loosely
falls into the
folk category,
but people
who are i
comfort- J
able with M
t r a d i - jf
t i o n a 1 /
the Trouba
Chris Chandler
comments on the
evils of society
through poetry
delivered against
the backdrop of
music played by
his band, the
Convenience
Store Trouba
dours.
folk often don’t know what to do
with the band, says Dong Tucker,
host of KWVA’s "texas chainsaw
acoustic hour.”
“They're pushing the borders
quite drastically,” he explains. He
describes their performance as
vaudevillian — a musical theater
experience, but with a twist.
To the beat of Chad Austinson’s
drums and the wail of Frankie Her
nandez's trumpet, Chandler deliv
ers poetry co-written with Tarot
card reader Phil Rockstroh, and
Laura Freeman sings backup.
But while the show may be ener
getic and sometimes kooky, its con
tent was designed to make people
think. Through his poetry, Chan
dler explores social and political is
sues, often commenting on the
ironies of life in America. Peter
Yarrow of the folk trio Peter Paul
and Mary compared Chandler to
folk legend Woody Guthrie.
“Chris is someone who says,
'I’m out there experiencing the
real world, Pm reporting on what
Pm seeing, and what Pm seeing is
n’t really nice,’” Tucker says.
“You could teach a course in soci
ology based on his disc.”
He characterizes Chandler as
“the professor you wish you had ...
almost like a car
icaiure oi <
poet,” with
crazy antics
that get the
audience
involved.
At the
same
time,
si Courtesy photo
Chris Chandler and
the Convenience
Store Troubadours
bring hack
beatnik, days
Tucker has seen audience members
responding intellectually to the per
formance.
“You can see people thinking —
their head pauses, their eyes bright
en and their face freezes for a sec
ond,” he says.
That’s why Mandolin Kadera
Redmond, performing arts coordi
nator for the UO Cultural Forum,
believes the BUZZ is the perfect
venue for the Troubadours.
“1 thought it was about time to
show that the spoken word is
coming back; it's not just history
from the beat times," she says.
“The BUZZ is one of those coffee
shop scenes I think the spoken
word belongs in, to take us back to
that beat time.”
The Troubadours swept
through Eugene last summer for
performances at the Oregon Coun
try Fair and John Henry’s, and
they look forward to returning.
"[Eugene is] one ofthe many psy
chic vortexes of the country,” Chan
dler says in a telephone interview
from a diner in California. The band
is on the road for 40 straight days of
performing, and this is their sole
day off until it’s over.
“We’ll do two shows tomorrow
to make up for it,” he says, laugh
ing. Then they’re off for one show
in Eugene before heading up to
Vancouver Island for four or five
days, after which they will loop
back down through Portland.
In the past year since he met Free
man and formed the band, Chandler
estimates that the Troubadours have
done 150 shows all over the United
States and southwest Canada.
“Chris is one of the hardest
working musicians out there,”
Tucker says of the band's rigorous
travel schedule. “He spent a long
time just living in his van. At one
time, his address was ‘The Road.’”
During the past 10 years,
Chandler’s home has been a
number of cars registered in
\ six different states. He
Turn to BAND, Page 10
■ WHO: Chris Chandler and the
Convenience Store Troubadours
Hi WHEN: Tonight at 7
■ WHERE: The BUZZ Coffee
House
■ COST: $3 students, $5 public
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