A few books cite Len Chandler as an important influence on early Bob Dylan. Can anyone fill in the blanks and tell us a bit about Chandler? Are his recordings available anywhere? Is he still performing? Wouldn't mind checking out the music for myself.
Len
Len Hunt Chandler, Jr., born 27 May 1935 in Akron, Ohio, is a guitar player and folk singer-songwriter who was active in the early 1960s folk scene, where he interacted with Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and others in the folk scence, especially _Broadside_ magazine circle. He has a number of albums (LPs; I don't know about CDs). I've heard him on several folk compilations, as _Broadside singers_ (1964) where he does his song "Father's grave" and _Broadside reunion_ (1972) where he does his "I'm goin' to get my baby out of jail". I don't have any info on his influence on Dylan.
By the way, an excellent book by Kristin Baggelaar & Donald Milton, _Folk music more than a song_ (1976, Thomas Y. Crowell, NY), has 3 pages on Chandler (7 on Dylan, including 3 pages of photos). Though the book is obviously dated (1976), it is one of my main sources for info on the folk scene.