Jon Chandler and trio returning to Society Hall for holiday show

CONTRIBUTED
Posted 12/14/24

ALAMOSA – Society Hall is thrilled to welcome back Colorado western singer Jon Chandler, with his trio, for a Christmas and holiday themed show on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. The concert is sponsored by SLV Health and will also benefit the San Luis Valley Cancer Relief Fund. 

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Jon Chandler and trio returning to Society Hall for holiday show

Posted

ALAMOSA – Society Hall is thrilled to welcome back Colorado western singer Jon Chandler, with his trio, for a Christmas and holiday themed show on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. The concert is sponsored by SLV Health and will also benefit the San Luis Valley Cancer Relief Fund. 

Tickets are $20 and are available at the Green Spot, 711 State Ave., Alamosa, or online at www.societyhall.org. The concert will also stream live on the Society Hall Facebook page and You-Tube channel. Appearing with Chandler will be the well-known Denver multi-instrumentalist Ernie Martinez as part of his trio. Chandler will be presenting a mix of his well-loved western songs, together with some holiday favorites. 

Board member Ruthie Brown adds, “Seventy tickets for this show have already been pre-sold to our sponsors, so don't wait to get yours – you don't want to miss Jon and this beautiful program.” 

Chandler is a three-time winner of the prestigious Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. “Linwood,” his moody examination of Doc Holliday’s life won the Spur for Best Song in 2009, while his tribute to Wyoming’s Hole in the Wall country, “Morning Star Moon,” received the award in 2012. His novel The Spanish Peaks received the WWA’s Medicine Pipe Bearer Award (Spur Award) for Best First Novel, and he was named True West Magazine’s Best Western Musician. “Wyoming Wind, A Novel of Tom Horn,” was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. 

A seventh-generation Coloradan, Chandler’s music and stories reflect his heritage, and his eight CDs, two novels, two non-fiction works, and myriad short stories and nonfiction articles are collected by western lifestyle aficionados worldwide. He hosts the iconic monthly concert series America’s Soul Live at the Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor in Arvada. 

“Homage,” his new recording of cover songs that have influenced his writing and singing, was released in Summer 2019 to exceptional reviews. He is currently celebrating the release of his anthology “Ghost Smoke,” a retrospective collection that also features three new songs. 

The Los Angeles Daily News dubbed Denver native Chandler the “...best western songsmith since Ian Tyson,” while Texas’s Country Line Magazine exclaimed, “Thank God for Chandler and his gang of musicians.” A review of Chandler’s iconic CD WESTERNS includes the phrase, “Chandler’s music is literate and literary.” That about covers it. There’s not an ounce of stereotypical Gene ‘n Roy retro-cowpoke, Lazy Z Chuckwagon faux-western schtick in his music, voice or prose. 

Chandler writes and sings of the historic and contemporary West – not particularly cowboy songs and stories, although they tend to show up with frequency. His songs owe more to Larry McMurtry, Elmer Kelton, Robert Service and Mark Twain than they do to anyone in a band that ends with wranglers or ramblers. 

"Jon Chandler is part Wallace Stegner, part Jack Schaefer. He’s part Bruce Springsteen, and part Rambling Jack Elliott. He’s part William F. Cody, and part Cole Younger. Yet he’s distinctively original, a poet laureate of the American West of past, present and future,” stated Johnny D. Boggs. 

The Christmas and holiday-themed performance will be on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m. at Society Hall, 400 Ross Ave., Alamosa. Tickets are available at the Green Spot or online at www.societyhall.org, and the concert will also stream live on the Society Hall Facebook page and You-Tube channel.