LYON EDITIONS

est. 2024

A path taken by chance is the story of Len Chandler, one of the countless singers, students and teachers from coast to coast who sat in, stood up and rode freedom’s highway for the voting rights of their fellow Americans in the Jim Crow South. But Chandler was in possession of an extraordinary knack for topical songwriting and an unwavering dedication to racial justice.

From his middle class upbringing in Akron, to the heart of the Greenwich Village folk scene, Chandler was introduced in short order to humorist Hugh Romney, poets Bob Kaufman, David Henderson and Langston Hughes, and folksingers Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan. He was swiftly recruited by Pete Seeger to join the singing organizers with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and sent to Arkansas to register voters.

“You have to take the lead from somewhere and there were only a few performers around who wrote songs, and of them, my favorite was Len Chandler,” said Dylan.

The pair wrote songs side by side though unlike Dylan, Chandler’s commercial recording career stalled; nevertheless, he stayed committed to the cause of racial justice and topical song for the next 60 years. Compiled from rare interviews with Chandler by the author, Denise Sullivan’s concise tribute to Chandler, Shadow Dream Chaser of Rainbows, pays homage to an unsung folk hero and provides instruction and inspiration for artists and activists determined to keep pushing for change in perilous times like now — when it’s more imperative than ever that we insist on the right to vote.