Mannheim Steamroller

"18th Century Classic Rock"

I remember going to a music festival in Seattle back when I was a teen. I walked into a listening room where they were demonstrating a new stereo system... I don't remember exactly what year it was. I don't remember the stereo system. I don't even remember which festival it was (although it had to be either Folk Life Festival or Bumbershoot). What I do remember clearly was the music that was playing: Mannheim Steamroller's FreshAire III. Ever since, that album has been one of my all time favorites!

Mannheim Steamroller's music is a little hard to classify. It's classical, folk. rock, and jazz all at the same time. Lately, they've been best known for their Christmas albums, but that is just a small part of the music they've produced. There are now 8 FreshAire albums plus over a dozen other non-Christmas albums that they've made.

The group was started over 25 years ago by "Chip" Davis who began his career writing advertising jingles for an Omaha, Nebraska ad agency. In 1976, he was named Country Music Writer of the year for his song "Convoy". Yes, Chip Davis is the brains behind C.W. McCall's music! Bill Fries, also known as C.W. McCall, was a former ad executive at the same company as Chip Davis and backing him were the musicians that would become Mannheim Steamroller.

For more information about Mannheim Steamroller, check out their official page at:
http://www.amgram.com/

And just for fun, here's the C.W. McCall page: http://www.techren.net/

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