Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 08 I Don't Need To Be Remembered.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 10 Maybe Tomorrow.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 09 Can't Start Too Soon.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 11 Orange Slice.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 12 A Woman I Used To Know.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 13 I Don't Want Your Land.mp3

Mi Mi With Mommy - Dooner Kandler - 14 Fishing on a Creek.mp3

Paranormal Deism - Dooner Kandler - 01 Misery Likes Company.mp3

Paranormal Deism - Dooner Kandler - 05 I'm So Bored (John Hinkley).mp3

Paranormal Deism - Dooner Kandler - 07 All Those Things You Say.mp3

2AM on a Thursday

Please follow me on Instagram #doonerkandler 
Legends can be based on fact or fiction, legends can be based on truths and half truths. The legend of Dooner Kandler is a combination of all of these. 
Kandler grew up in Wisconsin and along with Midwestern band mates Paul Garrigan (lead guitar and vocals), Rick Saul (bass) and Troy Summerstead (drums) formed the band Maximum Entropy in the mid 1990's. Kandler played ukulele, banjo and rhythm guitar and shared both writing duties and lead vocals with Garrigan. The band featured a unique mix of punk, blues, blue grass and folk. The band looked destined to capitalize on the growing grunge movement of the time after they released a self titled album with the single I am a Mystic. The song was penned and sung by Kandler and told the tale of a youth realizing he had Mystic abilities that could both offer goodwill to people and curse them. The boy was struggling with the fact that he only seemed to be able to harness the later of these two abilities. 
The band soon broke up after differences between Kandler and Garrigan persisted about the direction of the band. All hopes of the band reuniting ended when Garrigan, an avid golfer, was struck dead by lighting while golfing in Michigan. The small but loyal fan base started the rumor that Kandler had cursed Garrigan after the breakup and his death was caused by Kandler's so called Mystic powers. The legend of Kandler being a Mystic had started. 
At the end of the nineties Kandler teamed up with southern guitarist and keyboardist Tremon Jefferson. After the two had begun collaborating they recruited Irish drummer Sean O'Callaghan and formed the band Chicken Pox. The band looked like a strange combination with Kandler often sporting a baseball hat and jeans, Jefferson wearing flamboyant clothing and a large Afro and O'Callaghan's long hair and disheveled appearance. The bands appearance could only be matched by the bands unique fusion of funk, punk, and Irish folk. Their style never caught on in the states but on the suggestion of O'Callaghan, the band went to Europe and began to attract a large and loyal fan base in the European club circuit especially in O'Callaghan's native Ireland. Known for their high energy live shows,the band was set to start recording their first album after Jefferson was set to return to Europe after a brief vacation back home in Mississippi. While back home Jefferson was involved in a tragic car accident where he swerved off the rain soaked road hitting an electricity pole. Jefferson's blood alcohol was said to be more than twice the legal limit and he was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. The impact of the crash ejected Jefferson from the car and the wires from the pole landed on the wet road and electrocuted Jefferson beyond recognition. 
This only fevered the rumors of Kandler's mystic abilities and prompted Kandler to leave the music business all together and return home to the states to pursue other interests. 
Kandler returned from his musical hiatus in 2005 and began playing acoustic sets in the states that featured Kandler on Guitar. Ukulele and banjo. Trying to capitalize on a small cult status in Ireland that was rising from Chicken Pox live bootleg tapes, Kandler moved his act to the Emerald country in 2008. Kandler became a fixture in the Irish coffee house and bar scene as the decade came to an end. Kandler's sets became increasingly dependent on songs penned for the Ukulele until finally the uke became the only instrument he took the stage with. Although offers began to pore in for Kandler to record his music, he was reluctant and passed on the offers due to the haunting of both Garrigan's and Jefferson's deaths. 
In 2011, Kandler returned to America and continued to play in coffee houses and bars throughout the country until focusing on the southwestern states by mid decade. He could not escape the continued stories of how he was a "Mystic" or in many cases an "Irish Mystic" from those who mistakenly believed he was Irish from the success he enjoyed in Ireland both as a solo artist and with Chicken Pox. His live shows featured both original music and covers from a wide variety of musical genres. His one-man ukelele sets featured hundreds of covers and combined a soothing musical style that involved the audience and were feathered with both humor and wit. 
Kandler finally faced and embraced both his fear of recording and the "Irish Mystic" persona and recorded his first album in over two decades. 'Mimi for Mommy' was released in August of 2018 with all of the music written and performed by Kandler. The songs are all acoustic on the ukelele without background vocals and give the listener a stripped down version of Kandler's haunting soulful voice. In typical Kandler style, the lyrics can cover introspective love songs, from the heart self evaluations, topical world evaluations and sarcastic wit. Kandler has shown in this album his continued ability to tell a story in a song. 
Kandler released his second solo CD titled Paranormal Deism in July of 2019.  This album is again written and performed entirely by Kandler. The songs tend to be more personalized and biographical than the first album but Kandler's ability to tell a story in a song continues to shine through.
Kandler is currently working on his third solo project with plans for a 2021 release.

-Sean Kelley
 




Dooner Kandler

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