THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701030249
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 105 lines
``They have some fun, that's a fack
``Most of them find their way back,
``There at the crossroads by the railroad sign.
``I wanna thank you for the shop on Buckhorn Drive.''
NAT CHAVIS, lead singer of the popular Hampton Roads country band Wooden Nickel, hopes to bring a measure of fame to an eight-mile road in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County with his up-tempo song, ``Buckhorn Drive.''
On Feb. 15, about 450 radio stations will get the record on the SMG label, the first single from Chavis' Nashville-produced album, ``Since You've Been Gone.'' Then, it's a matter of hoping that the song gets air time and that it catches listeners' ears and hearts.
But small, independent labels are starting points. Their names are seldom seen on top-100 charts, so SMG hopes to make a few extra dollars by selling Chavis' contract to what he called ``one of the big boys,'' a major label.
Superior Music Group, which owns the label, pays for production and promotes the single. ``But,'' said Chavis, a warehouse manager at Nansemond Cold Storage, ``I have to promote the album. That cost about $8,000.
``I couldn't afford it, but someone very, very close to me gave me the money and told me to go for it.''
Meanwhile, it is still Nat Chavis and Wooden Nickel, down-home performers who practice in the crossroads community of Buckhorn, in a building that once housed a welding shop.
The Jernigans, who own the building and let the band use it for free, are part of the song: ``Roy and Charlotte - they don't seem to mind.''
The shop is on Buckhorn Drive, a narrow, mostly straight road that slices through the tiny Buckhorn community. The road is reached by making a right turn off U.S. Route 58 onto Chapel Drive, which dead-ends on Buckhorn Drive, which winds up in Windsor.
Chavis, 43, lives on Lakewood Drive in Barrett Acres but spends most of his musical hours in Buckhorn, home to about a dozen families.
The singer-songwriter is organizer and lead singer of Wooden Nickel, an in-demand country band that finds work in Hampton Roads clubs just about every weekend.
The Chavis album, though, is a solo effort featuring Nashville pickers who have worked with such luminaries as Lee Greenwood, Roy Clark and Johnny Cash.
In August, Chavis worked with Hank Thompson, a western swing star since the 1950s who is still going strong.
``That was my biggest gig,'' Chavis said, three days in Canton, Texas. ``I performed with him, and I performed solo on the same show - did the entire album.''
Those Texans were the first folks outside the area to hear about Buckhorn, which Chavis describes in song as ``a quiet little place - and on Wednesday nights, it's where we can be found.''
The name of Buckhorn came about ``when someone found a buck's horn near the railroad tracks,'' according to Kermit Hobbs, author of ``Suffolk - A Pictorial History.''
Many years ago, the community of Buckhorn was fairly busy - home to a Seaboard Railroad station, a cotton gin, pork packing house, post office and two stores.
Now, its chief claim to fame seems to be Wooden Nickel, a name Chavis borrowed from a band he played with in Georgia.
These days, his favorite song is ``Momma,'' a cut from his album. His mother knew nothing of it until she listened to the CD.
``Then, the tears came rolling,'' said Ellen Gay, who is ``momma'' to nine children - Nat is number four - grandmother to 21, and great-grandmother to six.
``It took Nat a long time to sing `Momma' on stage. He'd get to the middle, then start crying,'' said Chavis's wife, Charlene, whose favorite album cut is the final song.
Her husband used to sing it, ``My Lord, Jesus Christ'' at Open Door Church, where the family worships. ``You've got to give the Lord credit,'' he said.
Following a recent Saturday concert at Sports Emporium in Franklin, Chavis told the audience, ``Don't forget to go to church in the morning.''
If Chavis drank - he doesn't - he'd probably toast local country station WCMS, which gives another song from the album, ``Lots of Luck'' lots of airplay Wednesdays between 8 and 9 p.m., when disc jockey Mike Montgomery spotlights area talent on ``Homegrown Show.''
``That cut has the down-home, traditional country sound that Nat's going for,'' Montgomery said.
Chavis would welcome any measure of national popularity his traditional country sound might bring, but he would not sing the blues if fame and fortune eluded him.
``I've had a full life,'' he said, ``my world wouldn't fall apart.''
Chavis did not go for a solo career earlier because he married young and had two youngsters to raise.
``You can't just get up and go, unless you have no conscience or feeling of responsibility,'' he said. ``Now, I'm trying, and with my wife's blessing. If you want to do something, do it. If you don't try, how are you going to succeed?''
Meanwhile, it's ``thanks for the good times, at the shop on Buckhorn Drive'' and hoping for a national slot. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Nat Chavis lives in Barrett Acres but spends most of his musical
hours on Buckhorn Drive, practicing with the Wooden Nickel band. Too
bad the street sign isn't spelled correctly.
File photo, 1994
The down-home performers in Wooden Nickel bring their country music
to many local nightspots.