If you go
› What: Mannheim Steamroller› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› When: 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23› Admission: $59, $79 and $99 plus fees› For more information: 423-757-5580
Mannheim Steamroller is on the move, as is always the case in November and December, bringing its popular brand of Christmas music to dozens of stages around the country.
Now in its 31st year, this year's Mannheim Steamroller holiday tour is the biggest and longest yet, according to Chip Davis, Mannheim Steamroller founder and leader.
"The tour starts earlier every year," Davis said in a phone interview. "We have close to 100 dates with the two tours. I'm not on either tour. This will be my 11th year doing 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas' at Universal Studios Orlando."
As for its program, Mannheim Steamroller has plenty of options from which to choose. Since 1984, Davis and his company have recorded 13 Christmas albums. Those albums have sold more than 29 million copies, making Mannheim Steamroller the No. 1-selling Christmas artist of all time.
"We've even outsold Elvis," Davis said. "It's crazy."
Davis took a circuitous route to becoming the King of Christmas. After studying music at the University of Michigan, he took a job at an advertising agency writing jingles. One of his clients, Old Home Bread, utilized Davis' jingles sung by writer Bill Fries, who became the voice of C.W. McCall, the bread truck driver.
Convinced to do non-jingles under the McCall name, Davis and Fries released five albums between 1974 and 1979. They hit it big with No. 1 single "Convoy" in 1975. Davis was named SESAC's Country Songwriter of the Year in 1976.
At the same time, he was making McCall records, Davis founded Fresh Aire, the name he gave to the recording group that was to perform the music he wanted to write - a blend that's been dubbed 18th-century classical rock.
"It's an eclectic mix," Davis said from his farm outside Omaha, Nebraska. "I'm a classically trained musician. I went to the University of Michigan for classical music. When I got out, I wanted to write some of that music and try to popularize it. That's where the drums and bass come in. But I retained instruments like the harpsichord and oboes. I'm mixing pop and classical. It's worked pretty good so far."
Fresh Aire debuted on American Gramaphone, the label Davis founded and continues to operate. But he said he didn't expect Fresh Aire to become a Grammy-winning hit and American Gramaphone to grow into the largest independent label in the music industry.
Including the Fresh Aire series and its string of Christmas albums, Mannheim Steamroller's sales total 40 million albums.
Fresh Aire, Davis said, differs from the Christmas recordings in a very significant way.
"Fresh Aire is all original music [whereas] Christmas is based on Christmas carols," he said. "That's an arranging process compared to being a compositional technique. Fresh Aire is different to write because the melodies don't previously exist. I do one of them every five, six, seven years."
A leader in marketing as well, Davis has expanded the Mannheim Streamroller brand to a line of food items, including his signature Cinnamon Hot Chocolate, bath and apparel products and clothing.
He's also just released his 11th book, "The Wolf and The Warlander," a young-adult novel about the adventures of Seti, the Wolf, and a horse named Ghost, the Wanderer.
"It's based on animals I have," said Davis. "I have two timber wolves and four horses. The oldest timber wolf is 10 years old; his name is Seti. One of the horses named Ghost is 10, too. In nature, they'd be enemies. But they're best friends. This horse and this wolf run around the pasture together chasing each other. It's a cool thing to watch them. That's what started it."