BIOGRAPHY

Nash County musician chases fame in Music City

NASHVILLE — It’s a Tuesday afternoon on the second floor of Honky Tonk Central, one of nearly three dozen bars on Lower Broadway. Chandler James is finishing up a Chris Stapleton soulful ballad, “Fire Away.”

Squinting through the sunlight beaming onto the second-floor stage, James is pla ying the 2-6 p.m. “training shift.” It’s a far cry from the bigger and more established venues like the Ryman Auditorium, Station Inn, Ascend Amphitheater and Grand Ole Opry.

But James is exactly where he wants to be, especially considering the Nash County native only started playing guitar about four years ago.

In fact, if not for a cowboy hat and a guitar, James might still be cutting grass at Rocky Mount Mills or partying at Auburn University.

Instead, he’s performing under the stage name Chandler James at daytime gigs at honky tonk bars in Nashville. That’s Nashville in Tennessee, also known as Music City. He’s playing the Tootsie’s rotation of bars, as well as picking up spots at other venues throughout the region.

Oh, and he just released a single, “Long Haul,” written by Steve Dorff, a hall-offame songwriter who has written songs for George Strait, Lee Greenwood, Eddie Rabbit and Kenny Rogers.

“I’m fortunate to be where I am,” James said. “Especially just about four years from when I first picked up a guitar. But I have a long way to go to be where I want to be.”

According to a 2013 study by Next Big Sound website, just 0.02 percent of artists make their way to mega-star status. Another 2.3 percent are mainstream or mid-sized talent and 6.8 percent are developing artists.

The remaining 90.7 percent, according to the study, are undiscovered.

“It’s unrealistic to say that I don’t have doubts,” James said. “But I’m a really lucky person. Nashville is a contact town — and fortunately, I moved here with contacts already.”

But moving to Nashville and playing music wasn’t a lifelong dream for James like it is for some artists. True, he said he’d always wanted to play the guitar, but making a living at it wasn’t his endgame when he first started playing.

Four years ago, when James was a 17-year-old senior at Rocky Mount Academy, he didn’t even know how to play the guitar. That all changed when he struggled to stay awake in an AP psychology class in school. Then a friend suggested he drop the class and enroll with him in music performance.

“I didn’t take him too seriously when he told me,” said his mother, Kelcey Gazaway. “But I told him if he can play “Wish You Were Here” (by Pink Floyd), he can drop the class. Four days later, he came home and played it. I looked at my husband and said, ‘We might have an expensive hobby here.’”

Every day after football practice, James practiced, learned songs — mostly country — and transitioned from an electric guitar to a D’Angelico acoustic guitar. As he got better, he upgraded to a Martin.

“His first public appearance was at a friend’s piano recital,” Gazaway said. “I watched the people in the audience, and they looked at each other like, ‘He’s good.’ That’s when I thought he might have something.”

A few months later, a buddy’s brother came down from New York to play a show at Tarboro Brewing Company in Tarboro. He invited James on stage to play a few songs.

“I was extremely nervous, and you could tell I was still learning,” James said.

He started playing more bars, restaurants and private parties, and his parents invested in more and better equipment. His first big show was at his high school graduation in front of about 200 people. Although it was a good experience, he still didn’t have an inclination that he would continue as a performer.

It wasn’t until a graduation trip to St. Thomas that planted the seed that eventually led him to Nashville.

“I was sitting at the bar one night with my cowboy hat on, and a lady commented on it,” James said.

The woman struck up a conversation with James, asking him if he played music and if he had his guitar with him.

“When you’re learning guitar, you bring it with you everywhere,” James said. “So I went to my room and got it and played in the bar for her. She said she liked how it sounded, told me she owned a record label in Nashville and wanted me to come and visit.”

But he still hadn’t decided on music as a career. He applied to West Virginia University — because of its status as the No. 1 party school in the country — and Auburn University.

” “He has a big heart, he makes good decisions and he looks after others. He had a real drive for the music. - Kelcey Gazaway

But as the summer of 2019 was winding down, he began to have second thoughts about an out-of-state college experience.

“I think I was most proudest of him when he recognized that was not what he needed to do,” Gazaway said. “He was picking up a lot of weekend gigs. He said, ‘If I move, I’m going to have to start all over.’”

So he enrolled in Nash Community College and continued to play the music circuit in the Twin Counties — TBC in Tarboro, Rocky Mount Mills, Westridge Grill and others, as well as private parties throughout the area. And he started writing songs, too.

Then in 2020 when COVID hit, he decided to visit Nashville, and the record label owner from the St. Thomas bar, Carla Williams, set him up in a studio to record an EP of five songs, including his first original, “Don’t Remind Me.”

“It was awesome,” James said.

Because of COVID, some of the best musicians weren’t touring, so they were playing as studio musicians. Chandler’s first recording sessions included Grammy winner and two-time CMA Musician of the Year Brent Mason, Supertramp’s Carl Verhoyen and Keith Carlock, who has played drums with Steely Dan, Toto, James Taylor and Sting.

Although he visited Nashville numerous times after high school, his mother told him that he couldn’t move there until he at

“I started playing a lot around home — once or twice every weekend and making decent money,” he said. “So I ended up staying and getting my degree.”

On May 3, James graduated from Nash Community College. On May 4, he turned 21. On May 15, he and his dog, Emmy, moved to Nashville.

Soon after, he auditioned for the Tootsie’s circuit, which includes daytime gigs at four bars along Lower Broadway. He also has played the PNC Plaza stage outside the Ryman Auditorium and the balcony bar at Jason Aldean’s bar.

Sometimes he plays with a band,

some of whom he just meets the day they play, and sometimes he plays solo. On that Tuesday afternoon in September, James was playing with a band that had one rehearsal under its belt, performing a mixture of country and classic rock songs to a crowd of about 50.

While most of the big-name acts are playing at night throughout Nashville, James and his fellow budding artists are paying their daytime dues, belting out tunes by Chris Stapleton, Kenny Chesney, Waylon Jennings and Bob Seger.

But they’re playing.

“I played seven hours today,” James said earlier this month during a phone interview. “I play 20-25 hours a week on average, but I’ve been getting more and more shows lately. I am making more money, but it’s not good for the voice.”

James’ parents, Kelcey and Eric Gazaway, both are proud of him, for multiple reasons, Kelcey said.

“He has a big heart; he makes good decisions; and he looks after others,” she said. “He has a real drive for the music. And as a parent, it makes you happy to see him happy in what he’s doing.”

Since James’ newest single, “Long Haul,” was released on Sept. 28, it has been downloaded almost 300 times on Spotify and Apple Music. The song was released on about a dozen music streaming services. In addition, James has recorded three more Dorff songs that have yet to be released.

And when he talks about the many pitfalls in the music industry, the 21-yearold seems to have a realistic grasp of the difficulties of making it to mega-stardom.

“I would like to be the next Garth Brooks,” he said, laughing. “But really, I want to make enough money playing music that I can provide for a family of three or four — somewhere off Broadway in Nashville.”

Until then, he’s going to keep playing the honky tonks, which so far has been enough to provide for him and Emmy.

J. Eric Eckard is a free-lance writer based in Rocky Mount.

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