Steve Tannen

Acoustic Live Magazine

Steve Tannen at the Living Room
by Richard Cuccaro

It's almost 9 pm at the Living Room and the performer on stage begins a soft, chopping, double-strum, 4/4 rhythm on the bass strings of his Taylor. Steve Tannen is slowly weaving his way into "Love Come Knockin'."
There are a few ardent conversationalists in the room whose low buzz can still be heard in the background. Steve's voice, somewhere between Sting-as-choirboy and Edith Piaf-as-songwriter/guitarist begins to pull them in. At about the midpoint of the song, the room, except for Steve, is dead silent. It's happened before, in bigger, noisier rooms. He seems to be living inside the song and we go there, too. Even normally disinterested people who've come to hear other performers get drawn in by the all-too-familiar, melancholy memory of longing that the song evokes and the way the singer's soaring voice is delivering the news of "too little, too late." The silence continues for a millisecond after the last note, then the room erupts. Boisterous applause mixes with whoops of approval from won-over strangers and from Steve's followers, fans who show up at every gig.

Normally Steve shares a song or two, usually a cover, with his brother Greg. Their harmonies are very tight, as you might expect from two brothers with exceptional voices. However, Greg is in California at a family reunion, and can't join Steve this evening. Steve spins some dark family humor out of the way he was informed too late to make arrangements to go. After the laughter subsides, he acknowledges some unsuccessful, last-ditch efforts on the part of some family members on his behalf. He then invites friend and fellow singer/songwriter Don Everett Pierce to join him onstage for a moving version of Don's "Joshua Tree."

Steve's circle of singer/songwriter friends keep showing up at his gigs, whether they sing with him or not. While he continues to record songs for his yet-to-come first CD, his friends and supporters keep begging for something, a cassette, anything, to keep them going between his gigs.

Steve writes predominately of life in the downhill bobsled run of romance and the sudden hairpin turns that result in the requisite trail filled with broken dreams and hearts, with egos bruised beyond recognition. So, given the emotional carnival ride described in Steve's songs, I decided to ask him a few questions.

What leads up to a song like "Love Come Knockin'", or "Sing Me to Sleep"? Lack of sleep. I'm an insomniac. During the early morning hours, from midnight to 6am, I'm usually working on songs. Part of the viewpoint I take comes from looking at the life and the world at those hours with no sleep. I work until I can't handle it any more,then I get a couple of hours of rest.

I especially like the sense I get of living inside of a moment when you perform. How does that happen? One of my big influences is jazz. Jazz guys have this "atmosphere." You put something of theirs on the turntable or in the CD player and the whole room changes. That's what I aspire to.

How did that come about? My Dad plays jazz on the piano. He always did. We moved around a lot my whole life; Canada, Australia, but wherever we were, the one constant was the music. I remember, in Australia, around Christmas time, Mom would always have the holiday recordings of Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald playing. If it was summer time, Louis Armstrong's stuff was usually playing. Of course there was always Dizzy, Miles, and Coltrane, too..

What experiences really stand out for you? I got this job for a couple of years in L.A. as a production assistant with Norman Jewison, the guy who made Moonstruck, Heat of the Night, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Soldier's Story. I used to read stories, encapsulate them , work them over, and bring them to him for possibilities of producing them as a movie. He'd say "Just tell the story." That stuck with me.

After that, I moved to Colorado and I lived there with my brother, Greg. I had taken piano lessons on and off throughout childhood and I had started playing a little guitar. Greg played guitar and he showed me the first chords I learned. We formed a duo, called "The Kahluas" (after the name of my older brother's dog).

Have there been influences among contemporary singer/songwriters ? When I started writing, there were about…10 people whose work I was really in love with…among them, Bob Dylan, Ricki Lee Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Lennon & McCartney…

What was the turning point like when you decided that writing songs and singing them was your main passion ? It was like walking along a path and coming up over a rise and being able to see everything all the way to the horizon. Then it struck me: "Oh, my god…check this out! This is what I do!

Well I hung around like
cigarette smoke on your jacket
and in motel rooms the lullaby
was the sound of the traffic…
baby sing me to sleep
turn down the covers
'cause talk is cheap
baby sing me to sleep
oh turn out the lights
remember the nights
when the rain fell
eighteen inches deep…
and at closing time we're a nickel and dime
in the deep back pocket of America…

right now you better make
the best of your situation
escape through a hole
in the conversation…
but you came up like a wind
came up like a weed
all black and blue
all lipstick and need
to dig a hole in your heart
to bury the doubts
She holds the bottle
like a gun in her mouth

you head downtown
in your black leather jacket
you're getting old now
but you still stop traffic
the sun comes slow
like it's thinking it over
the moon shoots a dirty
look over its shoulder
and I'm so lonely without you