70s folk-rock with horns, steel guitars, and guest appearances by Doc & Merle Watson, Taj Mahal, Maryann Price.

11 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk-Rock, COUNTRY: Alt-Country

Show all album songs: Storm Coming Songs


Details:
Musical partners for nearly three decades, Mitch Greenhill and Mayne Smith represent a joining of contrasts. Mitch began his musical career in Harvard Square's coffeehouse scene, where he focused mostly on blues and other African-American traditional guitar styles. More recently, he has composed music for theatrical productions, including The Waiting Room at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Mayne's home is the San Francisco Bay area, and he has concentrated more on singing, especially Anglo-American "country" styles. He plays lead on dobro and, especially while maintaining his bona fides with local honky-tonks, pedal steel.

Together, Mitch & Mayne perform a wide range of material, from simple mountain tunes to uptown acoustic swing instrumentals, in a style that has been termed "vernacular music" by one reviewer (Elwood, San Francisco Chronicle) and "hybrid folk" by another (Kelp, Oakland Tribune). Among their own compositions -- some of which have been recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Rosalie Sorrels and Dave Van Ronk -- a song like "Slave To a Six-String Guitar" ambivalently celebrates the life of a barroom musician, while the quirky tenderness of "I Wish I Was Here Tonight" explores the scary terrain of human intimacy.

Mitch & Mayne have recorded two albums: Storm Coming (Bay Records) and Back Where We've Never Been (Bennett House Records). A songbook is in progress.