Mannheim Steamroller brings Christmas show to
By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
Get Out

Chip Davis, who most music fans know as Mannheim Steamroller, is the godfather of electronica and techno music, but he got his big break writing in a genre that is the polar opposite of what he is famous for.
Country music.

Believe it or not, Davis is the brains behind the long-haul trucking character C.W. McCall — fronted by advertising agency co-worker Bill Fries — who had a smash hit in the ’70s with “Convoy,” the song that turned suburban America into C.B. radio junkies.

“One agency wanted us to do a country jingle,” Davis laughs. “Seven records later we had 13 No. 1 hits and ‘Convoy’ was just huge.”
At the same time C.W. McCall had everyday people using terms like “Breaker Breaker” and referring to the police as “Smokey,” Davis, a former Ohio music teacher, recorded Mannheim Steamroller's first album, “Fresh Aire.”

“I got the first album done and they started selling it in hi-fi stores,” Davis explains. “It really made those speakers talk. One thing led to another and I had to quit the jingle part and just concentrate on Mannheim Steamroller.

While Davis has gone on to record eight more “Fresh Aire” albums that have left audiophiles and electronica buffs drooling, Mannheim Steamroller is mostly recognized for its updated Christmas music recorded with thumping bass beats and a slew of sequenced synthesizers over the past two decades.

It was during a break from the “Fresh Aire” sequels that Davis began contemplating a collection of holiday music. “I was thinking that all of the Christmas carols we know are of Renaissance minstrel,” Davis recalls. “So I thought, what if I take ‘Deck the Halls’ and do it all sequenced with synthesizers?”

The resulting album, “Christmas 1984,” sold millions of copies worldwide and established Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas tunes as some of the most popular heard around the holidays.

This latest tour, which makes a stop at the Dodge Theatre Thursday, supports Mannheim Steamroller's latest Christmas disc, 2004’s “Christmas Celebration,” the fourth collection of holiday music Davis has released.

“This is the first time we've done an all-Christmas show,” Davis explains. “Both halves are all Christmas. We're doing it in celebration of 20 years of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music.”

The advent of new musical technology has allowed the prolific Davis to record albums quicker than he could in the ’70s and he has several new projects in the works, but one of them will not be a follow-up to 2000’s “Fresh Aire 8.”

“I am not going to do a ninth,” Davis laughs. “Think about it — a major composer who writes a ninth symphony always dies!”