Chandler Travis

Chandler Travis started playing music professionally in the mid-‘60s with his Boston University roommate, Steven Shook, forming the funny, folky duo Travis Shook & The Club Wow (with Travis on bass and Shook on guitar). They quickly developed a following for their irreverent, slightly off-center brand of musical humor, gigged at various colleges and folk clubs in the area and opened for a number of bands at The Boston Tea Party.

Within a few years, the duo expanded into a four-piece rock band, The Incredible Casuals, based on an on-stage comedy bit where Travis introduced himself and Shook as “the Casuals” (both using the first name “Jack,” which drew big laughs from most audiences). Shook left to work in the building trade soon after forming The Incredible Casuals, though he returned occasionally as a guest performer. The official lineup was Travis on bass, NRBQ’s Johnny Spampinato on guitar, Aaron Spade on guitar and Rikki Bates on drums. They went on to play Sunday afternoons at The Beachcomber in Wellfleet on Cape Cod every summer for over 25 years.

Travis eventually relocated from the Boston area to Cape Cod, where he formed the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, a multi-horn ensemble that one critic described as “the missing link between The Kinks and Sun-Ra” (though Travis prefers to say that the group “put the harm in ‘philharmonic’”). Travis sings, plays guitar, writes and arranges for the band and many of the players in the ever-shifting lineup are faculty members at Berklee College of Music (a tribute to the appeal of Travis’ songs and his sophisticated arrangements. Often wearing pajamas and other unexpected garb on stage, the group plays everything from Dixieland and free jazz to hard rock.

At Travis’ side for every performance is his faithful and attentive valet, Fred Boak, who assists with the many costume changes and sings back-up vocals. In cases where a venue’s stage can’t accommodate all of the Philharmonic’s musicians, Travis has smaller versions: the Philharmonette and the Chandler Travis Three-0 (the latter being a trio plus, of course, valet Boak).

(by Fred Johanson)