Updated
04-16-08
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What is your favorite music genre? Chastains are represented in almost every style. You name it, we sing it! Are we missing someone? Let us know by using the Submit Content form. It will be a great help, because we don't want to overlook anyone.
The brothers Alan and Ronnie Chastain are the force behind Shady Creek. Their father, Warren Chastain, a banjoist, was insistent that the young brothers learn to play stringed instruments, but they were in their forties when, along with a third brother Odell, they formed Shady Creek in 2000. Shady Creek put out a CD, Sittin' On Top of the World, played small local venues, and booked festivals in Tennessee. The Chastain brothers were raised in Gastonia, North Carolina.
At the 2003 Cherokee Jamboree's Battle of the Bands they met Jody Prince and formed The Shady Creek Outlaws. They released an album in August, 2005, Waylon Grass: A Bluegrass Tribute to Waylon Jennings. The Shady Creek Outlaws included Alan Chastain (guitar), Ronnie Chastain (banjo), J.D Prince (mandolin), Randy Bryant (fiddle), Dale Roberts (bass) and Wayne Bridge (guitar, dobro). J.D., Ronnie and Alan provided the vocals.
After The Shady Creek Outlaws broke up, Alan and Ronnie recruited new musicians and returned to their roots and to Shady Creek. Shady Creek consists of Ronnie Chastain (banjo, lead vocals and tenor); Alan Chastain (lead vocals, baritone and rhythm guitar); Josh Earley (mandolin, lead vocals and tenor vocals), and Ken Ensley (doghouse bass). The group is now sponsored by Bear Ridge Mall and is preparing a new album, Blood Sweat and Tears, and a tour.
Website Sample Music
Chad and his wife Ellen provide a drug-free, alcohol-free music club venue in Lakeland, Florida for local independent rockers and emerging bands from around the country. He has brought in more than 60 bands, some from as far away as Italy and Ireland, for more than 20 shows. Chad has played music and organized shows since he was a teenager and prefers independent, underground music over commercial sounds. Chad and Ellen moved to Central Florida from Little Rock, Arkansas to manage Guitar Centers in the area and settled in Lakeland because they were excited about the city's burgeoning music scene.
Originally from Pascagoula, Arkansas, Dave Chastain is the name behind the Peoria blues favorite, the Dave Chastain Band. Dave is the guitarist and lead vocalist. 
He has written, recorded, and released three albums, Rockin' Roulette (1980), Something for the Pain (1992), and his latest, The Legacy: 2004-2005. The band also has Live at the Contemporary Arts Center (2003). Visit the Dave Chastain Band Website to hear three excellent songs on the jukebox. More cuts from the Something for the Pain album can be heard at CD Baby. Confused about David Chastain and David T. Chastain? It is common. David T. said in an interview, "I've never seen the Dave Chastain Band personally. The guy did call me. He said that every time he plays someone shows up bringing in an album and wants a signature. I'll get a call here once in a while and someone will say 'I hear you're playing down at the Rusty Nail in Blaire, Nebraska?' I say that's not me! That is the reason for putting the "T." in the name."
Official Website
Sample Cuts-Something for the Pain
Sample Cuts-Legacy
Sample Cuts-Live at Contemporary Arts Center
David T. Chastain was born in Atlanta. David is a prolific and versatile song writer, heavy metal guitarist, and record label executive with a discography of over 95 projects since 1983. David released albums with bands CJSS, CHASTAIN and SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN, recorded solo albums, and contributed to the albums of others. He has written over 200 songs. In 1985, David started Leviathan Records, his own record label based in Cincinnati, in order to have the freedom to record as he pleased.
See more at David T. Chastain.
Dawn Chastain recorded two 45s for Prairie Dust records: Hey Mister (Would You Like To Try A Song)? in 1977 and Never Knew How Much I Loved You 'Til I Lost You with Ain't No Doubt About It in 1978.
Drew Chastain started playing piano in high school when his family bought a piano that came with free lessons. He rapidly learned to play and had composed a number of pieces before entering college, earning the respect of other musicians. In 1997, he and fellow musician Aeryk Laws released Fish Out of Water, an instrumental symphonic CD which features 36 unbelievable musical adventures composed by them. Fish Out of Water is an eclectic mix of experimental pieces: piano composition, electronica, orchestra and sampling. It was recorded at Makeshift Studios.
Drew teaches philosophy at Xavier University in New Orleans and spends his additional time working with music and writing. He recently directed a short video and completed a script for a documentary.
Fish Out of Water
Hyacinth Girl Video 5:36
Ford began taking guitar lessons at eight years old, and he talked his friends, Troy Cheshier and Jay Harp, into taking lessons as well. Troy is now a guitarist and Jay is a bass player. Along with drummer Ryan Southerland, they form the pre-teen band Refuje. Refuje performs at venues all over the Oklahoma City area. The group has a CD titled Sightless, and another in progress. In addition to his music, in 2005, Ford received the honor of second place in his K-5 poetry contest for his poem, Best Friend. Ford's parents are Jim and LeAnn Chastain. His father is author Jim Chastain.
Pine Breeze Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee was a state residential facility serving some of East Tennessee's most severe emotionally disturbed adolescents. Between 1975 and 1981, the students of Pine Breeze Center released eight LPs of field recordings of local traditional musicians. The LP was funded by a $600.00 grant from The Tennessee Arts Commission. The remaining LPs were paid from sales of the previous releases. All the tracks were recorded by 13 to 18 year old students diagnosed as emotionally disturbed. Among the traditional musicians were Homer and Calvin Chastain and Don Holder. Homer was a fiddler, Calvin played the banjo, and Don Holder was a guitarist. Their tracks were on CD #1: Sally Goodin, Greenback Dollar, Chicken on a Limb, Muddy Road To Ducktown, John Hardy, Dance All Night, New River Train, and Smoke Behind The Clouds.
Jacob is from the Indiana Chastains. His parents are Jeff and Yvonne Chastain; his grand-parents are Harvey and Dorrie Chastain; and his great-grandfather is Clarence Ancil Chastain. Beyond this, their lineage is unknown. Jacob is very involved in music and plans to be a music pastor upon graduation from college. He is studying church music at Olivet Nazarene University and is pursuing a minor in youth ministry. He is president of the mixed choir at Olivet (Orpheus Choir), and he recruits students for the university by leading a singing group that travels to churches across the Midwest. During high school, Jacob marched and play tuba for Pendleton Heights for five years and was in the percussion ensemble. He also played trombone in the jazz band and was awarded the John Philip Sousa award for excellent musicianship. At his home church, Fortville, Indiana Church of the Nazarene, just outside Indianapolis, Jacob was youth music director and is now a featured soloist whenever he returns. In addition to music, Jacob also enjoys working out and playing baseball and volleyball. His favorite authors are Michael Yaconelli and Oswald Chambers.
Video: Beard Month 2007 3:00
Video: Jacob & Rachel 3:35
Jody was born in Ennid, Texas. He played with early rockabilly Eddie Bond's band, The Stompers, and wrote the rockabilly great Boppin' Bonnie for Bond. Jody later played with Fuller Todd before becoming associated with Charlie Feathers and Jerry Huffman as The Musical Warriors. When Feathers transformed his band from country to rockabilly, Jody changed from steel guitar to string bass, and Jerry Huffman took over lead guitar. 
The Musical Warriors played gigs together throughout the midsouth. Charlie, Jody, and Jerry wrote and recorded the famous Tongue-Tied Jill. It was released by Meteor Records and was said by Jody Chastain to be among the biggest hits Meteor ever had (about 100,000 copies), but Meteor never paid the band a cent.
Feathers, Chastain, and Huffman went on to record for the King label and were very successful. A crisis for the tight group occurred when Jody entered the army. However, he was working on a tank when he heard one of their songs blasting over the airwaves. He was so excited, he fell off the tank and hurt his back. As soon as he was discharged for the injury, he was back in the studio.
By 1958, the trio was in difficult straits. On June 23, 1958, the Kay music label released a 45 rpm rockabilly record containing Jody Chastain's My Way and Jody's Beat on the flip side of Charlie Feather's Jungle Fever and Why Don't You. The three performed together for the last time on the 1960 release, Dinky John. Jody wrote songs; he had fourteen of his songs recorded in two years, and he acquired his own studio, Memphis, at 773 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, devoting much of his time working with Buford Cody. Huffman moved to Huntsville, Alabama. Jody's music can be heard in recent compilations, Complete Sun Singles, Volume 2 (1995), Get With It: The Essential Recordings--Charlie Feathers (1998), and Complete Sun Singles, Volume 6 (1999).
In 2000, Katie, a graduate of Mitchell High School in Indiana, received a Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship of four years of school tuition and a stipend for books. She attended Taylor University and completed a degree in elementary education, but in her senior year she took a semester to study at the Contemporary Music Center on Martha's Vineyard. After her graduation she returned to the Contemporary Music Center for a year long artist-in-residency program. Afterward, she moved to Boston with eight other artists and musicians and continues to pursue music. Recently she has toured the country as an opening act for the Cinematic Underground. She has one album so far - Firecracker. Her parents are Don and Debbie Chastain of Mitchell, Indiana.
Neil was co-founder in 1991, along with dancer Young Park, of an experimental music group called SAFMOD (Sub-Atomic Frequency Modulation Overdose) that performs multimedia works integrating dance, theater, and visual art. The group began in Ann Arbor, Michigan and moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1994. Neil served as Music Director, while Park contributed incredibly creative choreography as Artistic Director.
In 2004, Park left SAFMOD. Her influence was integral to the success SAFMOD and the future of the group without her was in question. Initially, Neil Chastain was uncertain whether to continue, but numerous supporters entreated him to keep SAFMOD going, so he promised to try to save it. He took on the responsibilities of Artistic Director as well as being Music Director. He enlisted sisters Hope and Zoe Schultz for help in choreography, and with the enthusiastic support of the Cleveland community produced a program for 2005.
Neil initially studied classical percussion at the Cleveland Institute of Music for two years. He took off the next year, and during that year cut a record with the hard rock group Craw before attending the University of Michigan, where he majored in jazz improvisation with a specialization in electronic music. He continued to play in Craw while going to the University of Michigan, where he met dancer Young Park, with whom he co-founded SAFMOD. In addition to his work with SAFMOD, Neil is the primary composer for drum-and-bass group Pureplex, and plays in a jazz band called the Tom Prasek Sextet and a Latin group called Tropical Jam. He has also played with Throckmorton and with the Aphrodisiatics.
Paul Chastain, vocalist, bass player, and song writer, has been recording since the early 1980s. Before forming Velvet Crush with drummer Ric Menck in 1989, Paul and Ric released numerous 7" pop singles under such band names as Choo Choo Train, Bag-O-Shells, The Springfields, and The Stupid Cupids. Raining All Day (1987) was released under the name, Paulie Chastain. Many of the singles have since been collected on compilations like The Ballad Of Ric Menck (1997) and Hey Wimpus: The Early Recordings Of Paul Chastain & Ric Menck (1998). Paul and Ric first began recording together in 1987 when they both lived in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.
Though primarily independent label musicians, Velvet Crush signed for a time with a British label in the 90s, but it did not work out well. Recently, Paul and Ric have been playing backup for Matthew Sweet. 2004 saw a new Velvet Crush release, Stereo Blues. Velvet Crush will perform their Stereo Blues material in conjunction with Matthew Sweet's tour. See Paulie's MP3.com Biography and the Velvet Crush Fan Site. Email Velvet Crush at velcrush@aol.com.
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Robert was born in 1981. He began his formal musical training in the Pinellas County, Florida public school system at 17 and received his Bachelor of Music in Composition at the University of Florida. Commissions include the score for the independent film Hit for director Jeff Faulkinbury of Seven and a Half Seals Productions; Kyrie and O Magnum Mysterium for the Jubilus Concert Series at St. Augustine's Catholic Church; Love, Thou Art High for mezzo-soprano Lindsay Johnson; and For God So Loved the World for the Gainesville Institute of Religion. He is in his fourth season with the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra. He also performed with the University of Florida Wind Symphony, the University of Florida Orchestra, the University of Florida Choir, the Gainesville Civic Chorus, the Gainesville Civic Orchestra, the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, the University of Florida New Music Ensemble, the Bach Festival Orchestra, and various chamber groups.
As a teacher, Robert works extensively with middle and high school bassoonists around the Alachua County, Florida area. During the summers of 2002 and 2003 he was the bassoon teacher at the University of Florida Summer Music Camp and taught on the staff of the Seminole High School Marching Band in Pinellas County. He served as music director of the O2B Kids musical theatre troop in Gainesville Florida, where he wrote music for the program performed at the Center for the Performing Arts in Gainesville. Robert lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife, Karissa. Website.
Shawn has taught Vocal Music in the Wichita, Kansas Public Schools for fifteen years. He is currently Director of Choral Music/Fine Arts Department Chair at Wichita Heights High School, where he oversees a 275+ member vocal music department that recently won the Senseney Music/KAKE TV "High Note Award" for Musical Excellence. Shawn received his MME and BME from Wichita State University. He also serves as the Music Coordinator/Adult & Youth Choir director at Wichita Calvary United Methodist Church and is Conductor of the Wichita Choral Society. He is the immediate past president of the Kansas Choral Director Association. In the summer of 2005, Shawn spent two weeks in Germany as a member of the Fulbright Commission German-American Teacher Linkage Program. Shawn and his wife, Debbie, reside in northeast Wichita with their three children Lindsey, Eric, and Elsie.
Steve Chastain is a finger-style guitarist and a vocalist in the San Francisco Bay area. He released his first album, Over the Hole, in 1998 on Simply Smokin' Records. It was re-released in 2000 on the Orchard label. Steve plays regularly with the local Bay Area group, The Bone Pickers.
Official Website
Sample Cuts
Susan's first performance was singing to the juke box at age three at her mothers bar in Oklawaha, Florida. 
However, she became a massage therapist for 15 years instead of a singer. She was also a waitress at a jazz club and added her voice to a jam session one day as somewhat of a joke. More jam sessions followed until she began singing with the Paul Keller Band. On May 12, 2000, Susan Chastain opened the Firefly Club, and Ann Arbor, Michigan's premier jazz and blues night spot was born. Awards for 2004 include Best Jazz Club - Detroit Free Press; Best Jazz Club - Hour Magazine; Best Jazz Club - Current Magazine; and Best Blues Venue - Detroit News Reader's Awards. The success of the Firefly Club cannot be separated from Susan's personality and influence as owner, manager, and vocalist. In addition to bringing in national talent, Susan sings at the club weekly with the Paul Keller Orchestra and traveled with them on the road. She also sings with the Paul Klinger's Easy Street Jazz Band and co-leads Swingset, a five-piece swing band.
Official Website
PKO Records
Tilfer Earl "Til" Chastain was born January 11, 1923 and descends from the Indiana Chastains. He was a composer, author, arranger, and singer, and was a member of ASCAP. Tilfer wrote a number of songs including Shoes of a Beggar, Born to Walk Alone, Who am I, House of Blues, Cry Baby Cry, Put Some Country on this Country Boy, A Moment of Truth, You Hold My Heart in Your Hand, Her Feets Too Big, I'm Wise to You, Our Little World, and When I Meet You. He had a record called Shoes of a Beggar and a 1950s 45 with "House Of Blues"/"You Hold My Heart In Your Hand" on Soma Records (#1190). His best known cut is House of Blues. House of Blues is on the compilation Minnesota Rockers, Vol. 1 (1995).
Tilfer did several radio shows in the far east including The Armed Service Network Japan, The WW II Veteran's U.S. Army Separation, and Six Days of September, 1945. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
When his father died, Tilfer retired early from a fourteen-year career at Whirlpool Corp to take care of his mother in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also planned to do a lot of fishing, song writing, and recording, as he had done for so many years.
Tilfer's parents were Ivis Harry Chastain and Daisy Violet Floyd Chastain. Ivis and Daisy's children were Westley, Bruce, Tilfer, Clarice Irean, and Maxine. Tilfer and his wife, Mabel, had three children: William B., Roger, and Rosemarie. His lineage from Pierre is 1. Pierre; 2. Pierre, Jr. 3. William, 4. Barnett, 5. Barnett, Jr. 6. Henry Barnett, 7. Ivis Harry, 8. Tilfer.
When Chastain Central first posted Tilfer's biography, we had very little data on him. We thank Tilfer's grandchildren, Joseph W. Chastain and Myra Goins for providing considerable additional information. Joseph also shares with us about his grandfather Tilfer: "The funniest thing he ever done was he bought me a chicken. It was a very hot day and he put the chicken in a burlap sack, and the darn thing died on the back seat of his car."
Tilfer died July 6, 1986.
See Rosemarie Chastain Clark memorial website. She was Tilfer's daughter.
Kindred spirits Tom Chasteen and Mike Kandel met at Cal Arts and decided to collaborate on dance music. In 1991, they released two 12" singles; one of them was Tranquility Base, released on its own Exist Dance label. A later Exist Dance release, Champion Sound, established the label. After releasing 15 records, Tom left the Exist Dance label in 1993 and the two developed separately. Today, Tom Chasteen runs Exist Dance, which markets albums by Tom Chasteen, by Mike Kandel, earlier albums they created together, and music by others. He is also a regular DJ at The Echo Dub Club.
Discography
Appears On