Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing

Subject: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: Stefan Wirz
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 02:07 PM

just got a message from Steve Mann telling me that he's rehearsing for a show on Wednesday night Jan 28th (that is today!) with Will Scarlett (harmonica) at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley - so hurry to see (and hear) what could perhaps be the start of a second career for that legendary LA guitarist from the sixties!
Steve Mann discography

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: Steve-o
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 02:33 PM

Thank you, Stefan, for this amazing news! Back in the sixties, I often heard him play at the Ash Grove in Hollywood- he was by far one of the most astounding fingerstyle guitarists at the time. I wish I could drive up to Berkeley right now. I'll be following this with great interest- perhaps he will even come back down to L.A. to play?

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 03:53 PM

Just visited the website. This man is obviously one serious guitar player. Any chance you could persuade him to do a UK tour, Stefan ?

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: Stefan Wirz
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 07:32 AM

don't know if the author of the following report (John C. aka waxwing) drops by in this forum, but I'm sure he won't mind me posting his report, which he posted in another forum, here. It goes as follows:

(start of quote)
Just got in from a thoroughly Berkeley evening. It's not often these days that I feel below the median age at any event, but tonight the Freight was filled with the old gaurd of the Berkeley Left and I was one of the youngsters. It was a benefit in support of several organizations in support of the Homeless, a major issue in Berkeley. The first set, after some awards were given out by the Mayor, featured Carol Denney, a local protest singer who champions the homeless, and Country Joe McDonald, who played a variety of songs from protest songs about whales to meditative noodlings in open G with rack harp, to a song about Clara Barton, who founded the Red Cross and patented the first aid kit. A sprinkling of modest fingerpicking, even. After the break, Marc Silber, with a 12, opened with a song or two of his own, then was joined by Will Scarlett, a superb chromatic harp player, and then, a song later, Steve Mann joined them for a blues in A reminiscent of RJ's Kind Hearted Woman. Mann and Scarlet played a couple more pieces alone and then Marc joined them for a final number. Buzzy Lindhart was supposed to join them but was apparently too ill. Steve looked like a man upon whom the interveening years weigh heavy, yet he was clearly taking a great step. He put down some snapping trilled licks, fingerpicking with long nails, it seemed, and there were times when he was clearly enjoying himself. It was a perfect situation, Marc is a very "from the heart" performer, and Will seems to be a very gentle soul. At times it was like three old friends sitting on the back porch, and the audience was very supportive, especially of Steve. Apparently he has moved to Berkeley from southern CA, so I'm hoping we will see more of him, getting his wings back. He's fallen in with some good folks.
A very interesting evening.
All for now.
John C.
(end of quote)

I wished I could've been there (sigh!), Stefan

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: NobleSavage
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 12:43 AM

Brief note--
Will Scarlett plays chromatically using diatonic harmonicas--he does not use chromatic harmonicas.

How? Just ask him.

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: Stefan Wirz
Date: 10 Feb 04 - 11:25 AM

Anyone who is interested in taking lessons from or e-mailing Steve is welcome to do so (Steve: "I am planning all sorts of musical activities and I'm also teaching now as well."): [e-mail]
Stefan Wirz

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: GUEST,Stefan Wirz
Date: 16 May 05 - 05:57 AM

since Steve Mann's obvious obscurity (which I felt was a shame for the whole internet) originally started my discography building craze (see my Unofficial Steve Mann page), it's my pleasure to announce the upcoming release of the first CD containing nothing but Steve Mann on vocals and guitar (plus a few Janis Joplin vocals) on the Bella Roma label
The CD will be out mid June 2005

There's also a new Official Steve Mann homepage at Bella Roma

Next concert appearance of Steve will be
Frank Fotusky featuring Steve Mann
at the EPIC ARTS STUDIOS in Berkeley CA on July 16, 2005, with a pending house concert on July 17

Stefan Wirz (who's still NOT associated with any business firm ;-)

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: GUEST,"Boogie" Bruce
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 02:52 AM

It's been my pleasure to know Steve Mann since the early '60s when he was performing in Los Angeles coffeehouses and doing recording studio back-up work. At the time, though I wasn't aware of it then, he also was part of the San Francisco Bay Area folk scene. Steve could walk into any hootenanny in the L.A. area and other musicians would stop playing and hold out their instruments, offering them for Steve to play. Steve could not only play the original version of a song but also all the subsequent versions, giving tribute to each musician who had conceived those versions. His own versions were both respectful of the originals while also inventive and explorative. His playing was always highly rhythmic and also nuanced. Though I'd had a little exposure to blues by the time I'd met Steve, he really opened the door to the whole world of blues for me and exposed me to a wide variety of regional styles.

    Today, Steve can often be seen and heard playing his guitar with friends at the sidewalk cafe' of the French Hotel on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley. He has done some radio spots in the Bay Area and played at a few other coffeehouse gigs. Steve has had some considerable health issues to deal with but he remains fascinated by music and enjoys jamming with the young guitar students who come to him from across the country. Right now, he's been performing with a young fellow from upstate New York named Joe Mackessy who is a strong finger-picker in his own right (playing an old Kay-Craft guitar similar to one played by Josh White in photos from the early '30s). Steve still plays without picks, only his fingernails. His material ranges from traditional blues to folk music and on to the pianistic styles of Ray Charles and Mose Allison.

    Janet Smith, of Bella Roma Music, must be especially credited for helping publish much of Steve's work, coaching him back to performance readiness, assembling his recorded work for reissue as CDs while also being a friend and, at times, a caregiver.

    His current website is www.stevemanngtr.com where you can find updates on his life and performances and also purchase his CDs "Alive and Pickin'" and the newest, "Live at The Ashgrove" where you can hear him in action at his prime. Anyone with a guitar should purchase and listen to these CDs. Disclaimer: I'm only one of Steve's old friends and fans and not an employee of or otherwise connected with his publishing company or record company.

      Thanks to Stefan Wirz for helping to keep Steve's legend alive and, through the updates on the pages devoted to Steve at Stefan's site, for helping me reconnect with Steve after nearly thirty-seven years.

   Also, for those who may not be familiar with Will Scarlett's earlier work, he's probably best known for performing and recording with Hot Tuna which also featured Steve's old friend Jorma Kaukennon (?) whose song "Mann's Fate" on Hot Tuna's first album is a tribute to Steve and was inspired by Steve's style of picking.

    As a sidenote, Steve Mann had always been an excellent chess player and still delights in a good match down at the French Hotel.

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: GUEST,"Boogie" Bruce
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 03:54 AM

A brief note of correction: actually, I reconnected with Steve Mann a couple of years prior to reading about his performance in Berkeley to benefit homeless people on Stefan Wirz' site. While on a visit to Los Angeles in the Summer of 1989 to visit friends and relatives in the area, I found him fronting an electric blues-rock band of young musicians at a small club on Sunset Strip. He was playing an electric guitar finger-style and singing. A few months later, when back on the Central Coast, I found that he was to perform with Will Scarlett at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley drove up to see him. The trip itself was rather an adventure since we had to take the long way up the coast, then drive across San Francisco and the Bay Bridge to get to Berkeley because the recent major Loma Prieta Earthquake had closed Hwy. 17 across the mountains from Santa Cruz to the East Bay area (a much shorter route). Steve played quite well and did some singing as well. I didn't hear much more about him after that, other than that he was somewhere in L.A., until I was made aware of Stefan Wirz' site in about 2003 and soon found out that he was back living in Berkeley. I was able to locate him and soon drove up to visit and jam with him. I've tried to remain in touch as well as possible ever since.

Subject: RE: Steve Mann alive & well & guitar playing
From: GUEST,Janet Smith, Bella Roma Music
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 12:47 AM

Hi guys:
Janet smith checking in here after Boogie Bruce forwarded me your forum URL. It's fun hearing about folks who are inerested in Steve Mann, He is about to move into a cool living situation with guitar friend, Joe Mackessy at the beginning of September, where they will share the downstairs of a nice place in Richmond California, just north of Berkeley.

Joe is just devoted to Steve and has all sorts of plans for the two of them as he learns from the master and takes care of him as well. Joe is able to bring out the music in Steve and get him connected with the energy to enjoy his main purpose in life, it seems to me, and we are hoping Steve will be able t get up on stage more after working with Joe to put together a few simple gigs and hopefully working out some serious duets.

Meanwhile my job, as I see it, has been to get Steve Mann connected up in the music industry by copyrighting his material, registering it in ASCAP, issuing his work on CD, and perhaps in the future. putting out some tracks that have been recorded here at Bella Roma Music.
If you want to hear some lyrics for his piece "Holly Girl," just go to http://www.stevemanngtr.com and click on the Holly Mall, where music/tab for the piece is also available, and a little movie of Steve playing "Holly" in the kitchen here at Bella Roma Music.

If it weren't for Stefan Wirz' fantastic web site, I never would have discovered Steve Mann's history of recordings. If you want to hear a really nice reminiscense of him in Los Angeles during the 60's, read the liner notes by Rick Smith in our CD reissue of "Steve Mann Live at the Ash Grove," available on Steve's store page, or on CD Baby or Amazon.com or Elderly Instruments.com/recordings.

I got to get more info about the Ash Grove up there on the web site now that Ash Grove is out--the lyrics written out in English with comments on blues and slang terms, etc. Joe Mackessey just took Steve to the bank to get some cash out of his account for the weekend. Steve uses an ATM card with a pin number and has a nice little bunch of royalties in his account, plus Rolly Brown's cash gift from selling twenty of Steve's CDs at a guitar camp this summer. Those of you who are songwriters will appreciate hearing that, Steve's "My Thoughts Began to Crystallize" garnered him over $50.00 from ASCAP when it saw some action in Canada about a year ago. We will try to keep the ball rolling...

Write to him or me care of [e-mail] ( I forget to check his other email address on yahoo. Sorry for anyone who got ignored). Steve doesn't have a computer so we have to sort of handle all that for him.

Girls in short skirts especially welcome! : ) Thanks y'all!
Janet Smith