Steve Chandler was recently crowned Sound Engineer of the Year at the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Association Industry Awards.
Chandler lived in Owensboro for many years and worked as the Director of Entertainment for the Executive Inn but moved to Nashville more recently. Chandler can be found several days each month in Owensboro working and said that while this award is special to him, he also doesn’t want to be one that wins it several times because he wants others to be recognized for their talents.
And that is Chandler: modest and unassuming.
Fifty years ago, he began his interest in music, but it was because he was playing the keyboard in a band; first the Mags and then Midwest with band members Larry Maglinger, Bobby Blackford, Larry Evans, and Bill Lewis.
“Larry [Maglinger] and I got into recording together and this spurred our interest,” he said.
There weren’t engineering schools when he began like there are now, so Chandler learned to mix and edit himself. And the equipment has changed throughout the years, along with the musicians, who he said also chart their own music.
“It’s pretty interesting,” he said of learning the various charts the artists use.
Chandler is in a studio daily – either in Owensboro or Nashville – and said that part of the reason is that so many musicians spent their time over the pandemic writing that there are many songs to record. He also engineers live music sessions, including festivals like ROMP.
While in Owensboro, Chandler does sound engineering at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where he helps with the shows and recordings. He also works two weekends a month as the sound engineer at Owensboro Christian Church and sometimes brings Nashville musicians to the services.
“I like to see things grow,” he said of Owensboro Christian Church. “They’ve moved with the technology and adapted.”
Chandler said that he has been with the museum from the ground up, saying that their equipment is state-of-the-art and that many musicians are attracted to the museum for the performance spaces and also the city of Owensboro.
“The IBMA concert began in Owensboro … then moved to Louisville, Nashville and Raleigh [N.C.],” Chandler said. “But Owensboro launched it … brought it to the masses. It is the leading component of IBMA and bringing in people to perform.”
Chandler often works the shows at the Hall of Fame and is helpful in bringing in the acts — people he mentions on a first-name basis.
Part of that is because Chandler is easy to talk to, but most of that is because of the wide-ranging talent he has worked with during his career: .38 Special, Merle Haggard, Ricky Skaggs, Black Crowes, Bela Fleck, and Sam Bush, to name a few.
“Nashville is such a music city,” he said. “Working with Merle at Reba’s [McEntire] studio to hearing from a producer who calls and already has a studio – I go anywhere.”
Rounder Records and Hilltop Studios are two Chander talks about but says most sound engineers will go to any recording studio in Nashville.
“Everyone is family there,” he said. “You’ll end up working with everyone.”
Chandler enjoys the creative component of the work and said he will often have an artist do three to five takes without any musical accompaniment so that he can get the emotion of the song, and then build on that.
“I tell them ‘I want you to think about what you are singing about,’” he said.
Chandler said that while his job does involve tracking, dubbing, mixing and editing, it is not just about “pushing the faders.”
“It’s about the human element,” he said, regarding tuning a voice.
He brings the human element out of the vocalists and writers, of which he said some of the best songs have co-writers to aid in capturing the emotion.
“I love a good vocalist,” Chandler said. “It makes the players play better and everyone else be better.”
After the lyrics are sung, he will mix the various elements and then get together with other editors and the artist to get ideas.
“Sometimes one will say ‘can we change that…build on that,’ and we do,” he said.
Chandler has produced several Song and Album of the Year recipients and has also been nominated four times in Bluegrass and twice in Gospel.
In May of 2022, Chander was the recipient of the Absolute Gospel Music Awards “Deon Unthank Memorial Award,” which he said was a surprise even though his family was in the audience as he worked the show.
“This award was special because peers decide it, it isn’t a nomination,” he said.
And while Chander said he is retired, he only means because of his age.
“Freedom is when you can selectively do things,” he said.
And he selects to keep working to produce “anything that’s done well.”
“The phone still rings,” he said of his 50-year career.
