Jon Chandler

Jon Chandler was the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Male Performer of the Year award from the International Western Music Association at their annual convention in Albuquerque in November. His performances have stretched from California to Pennsylvania. A prominent Americana and Western music performer, Chandler’s music has been described as ‘literate and literary’ and he is often called the ‘voice of Colorado.”
Jon 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, Jon’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.
Jon’s new album “Ghost Smoke” will be coming in spring of 2024 and is an essential collection of his iconic western songs and poetry.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
International Western Music Association Male Performer of the Year 2023
International Western Music Association Entertainer of the Year & Male Performer of the Year 2024
Friends of Hart Park William S. Hart Branding Iron Award, 2018.
Spur Award, Best Song of 2012. Morning Star Moon.
Spur Award, Best Song of 2009. Linwood.
Western Folklife Center Best Song/Audience Award 2009. The Road That Leads to Yellowstone.
True West Magazine. “Best Living Western Musician.”
WWA Spur Award, Best First Novel. The Spanish Peaks.
Colorado Book Award finalist. Wyoming Wind.
Tin Pan South. Western Songwriter’s Session Host with Michael Martin Murphy, Junie Fisher and Joyce Woodson. The Station Inn, Nashville, Tennessee.
Keynote, Ozark Creative Writer’s Conference, 2019, 2024, Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Faculty, Tall Grass Writing Workshop, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
America’s Soul Live! Host of Denver’s premier