Jim "Texas Shorty" Chancellor began his musical journey at the age of seven when his daddy brought home a mandolin and told Shorty and his brother, Allen, that it would go to the first son who learned to play it. Shorty devoted most of the next six years to "pickin' the mandolin". Around 1956 a landmark occurred in Shorty's musical development when he became acquainted with the legendary Bennie Thomasson, who was the then current World Champion Fiddler. Bennie’s unique style of fiddling immediately attracted Shorty and he soon gave up the mandolin and poured all his efforts into old-time fiddling .

Three years later in 1959, under the tutorage of Bennie, Shorty won the World's Fiddle Festival. In 1960 he went to New York to appear on a national television quiz show "To Tell The Truth" as the youngest fiddler to hold the World's Championship. He became the second fiddler in the history of the World's Fiddle Festival to attain undefeated status by winning the contest three consecutive times.

Succeeding years have seen Shorty win hundreds of fiddle contests throughout the nation, among them the National Fiddle Championship and the Texas State Championship on several different occasions. In the early 1960's, through the efforts of an avid fan, a record company was established to produce Shorty's music. The circulation of the fiddle records over the years has taken his music to every part of the nation. Old time fiddle music has been the first love of Shorty's life for many years and he has encouraged young fiddlers to take up the art. Public awareness of this great music has grown to the extent that a music, which was once threatened with extinction, has been revived and is once again solidly entrenched in the entertainment world.