Steve Mann (guitarist)
Encyclopedia
Steven Mann was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

.

History

Mann broke onto the West Coast music scene in the 1960s. As a student at Valley State College in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, Mann began to perform folk music at hootenannies and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 clubs like The Ash Grove
Ash Grove (music club)
The Ash Grove was a folk music club located at 8162 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, founded in 1958 by Ed Pearl and named after the Welsh folk song, "The Ash Grove."...

 and The Troubadour. He made a number of friends on the folk music scene, including Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...

, Judy Henske
Judy Henske
Judy Henske is an American singer and songwriter, once known as "the Queen of the Beatniks".-Life and recording career:...

, Gail Garnet, Jimmy Rubin, and Terry Wadsworth (who later joined The New Christy Minstrels). In 1962 Mann was introduced to a young singer named Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

 at an open mic performance at The Troubadour. Mann began accompanying Joplin on guitar and they performed at open mics around the Los Angeles area. They stopped performing together when Mann temporarily relocated to San Francisco. A full account of Mann's association with Janis Joplin can be found at http://www.stevemanngtr.com/janis.htm. While in San Francisco, Mann also met singer/songwriter Ivan Ulz
Ivan Ulz
Ivan Ulz is an American songwriter.-History:After writing and recording his first song, A Letter to Hayley in 1962, Ulz decided to pursue a songwriting career...

 with whom he co-wrote two songs, one of which was recorded by Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen
Rod McKuen is an American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer. He was one of the best-selling poets in the United States during the late 1960s. Throughout his career, McKuen produced a wide range of recordings, which included popular music, spoken word poetry, film soundtracks, and classical music...

. Mann has also been linked to Margot St. James, Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...

, Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...

, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

, and many more.

Around 1967 Mann suffered a mental breakdown and went into partial retirement. His few recordings became collector's items and his music became legendary among blues guitar aficionados. In 2003 Mann moved to Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 where he began to perform again with the help of friends Will Scarlett and Janet Smith of Bella Roma Music. In 2005 Mann released a new album on CD, "Steve Mann: Alive and Pickin'." It includes re-releases of previously recorded material, including performances with Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

, as well as a new song written and performed by Mann.

In July 2009, the studio master tape of "Straight Life" was provided by John Lyon who had protected it from destruction since the 1970s. The tape has been digitized and re-released on CD by Bella Roma Music. Mann died on September 9, 2009 in Berkeley, California.

External links

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