Christmas music with a Renaissance flair

MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER AT POWERS AUDITORIUM

By JOHN BENSON

Vindicator Correspondent

A quarter of a century after Mannheim Steamroller’s debut holiday album “Christmas” was released, the new age outfit is celebrating with the recent release of its double-disc retrospective “Christmas: 25th Anniversary Collection.”

Now comes the fun part for band visionary Chip Davis, a Greater Toledo native, who once again is taking Mannheim Steamroller, known for its “Fresh Aire” series, on the road. This includes a Tuesday show at Powers Auditorium.

“The tour is the way we usually do tours in the sense that I do quite a bit of multi- media with it because the bulk of my music is instrumental and not vocal,” said Davis, calling from St. Louis. “So in order to make up for telling the story by the way of words, I tell the story by way of pictures. Sometimes you can communicate more directly to people on an intuitive level.

“And the show doesn’t necessarily follow the new album. I will use different cuts than would necessarily be on just the 25-year (CD). For example, ‘Deck the Halls’ and ‘Silent Night,’ which were probably two of my favorite songs, are not on this collection because they were on the ‘Celebration’ album a few years ago. But those songs will be in the show. I’ll have a mutiny if we don’t play ‘Deck the Halls.’”

In many ways the Christmas music industry was changed in 1984 with Mannheim Steamroller’s release of “Christmas,” which combined Renaissance instruments with rock ’n’ roll beats. Early on in its holiday touring career, Mannheim Steamroller found itself alone on the concert trail; however, over the past few decades other Christmas outings have become popular, including the ubiquitous Trans-Siberian Orchestra. So how does Davis see Mannheim Steamroller fitting into the current holiday show landscape?

“You mean, how does Trans-Siberian Orchestra fit into our world?” Davis laughed. “They try to skin the cat in a different way and a different genre than what I do. What I do goes back more to the origins of Christmas music. I do a whole section of Renaissance music in the show. Trans-Siberian Orchestra does it a different way with rock guitars.

“We’re more focused on ancient keyboards like harpsichords, lutes, recorders, the instruments of the original time of Christmas carols. They’re doing things in a completely different way, and they’re two different genres. I don’t think they conflict at all.”

Davis is confident that over the past 20-some years a phenomenon has grown out of Mannheim Steamroller’s annual Christmas tours.

“First, this is a really big family event,” Davis said. “And being a dad myself, I know what this means to families. These are songs that became a tradition. And tradition is one of the things we forget about it and it’s so important. And music plays a giant role in the tradition of Christmas. And by coming to the shows and seeing it live, people get the excitement of the live performance. So what it does is it reinforces and cements the family.”