Stoking the Steamroller

By Adam Zagorin

You would think it was Christmas in August. But instead of at the North Pole, Santa's workshop is tucked away in a suburban Omaha, Neb., office park where a red-bearded elf named Chip Davis is getting ready for the big day. Creator of the phenomenally successful New Age band Mannheim Steamroller, he is arranging a 12-city Yuletide concert tour and the fall release of his new Celebration CD, a compendium of what has become the best-selling Christmas music in America.

If you're sick of rap, grunge and heavy metal, Chip Davis could be your musicmeister. You may not have heard of him, but his uplifting, rhythmic arrangements are some of the most listened-to music in America. Sales of Mannheim Steamroller albums, which feature instruments from harpsichord to synthesizer, with a heavy dose of strings, are past the 32 million--album mark, and that's not even counting 10 million other records Davis sold in the 1970s after he co-wrote a sound track for the hit movie Convoy, starring Kris Kristofferson. In the past 15 years, Davis has racked up more sales than Bruce Springsteen, Sting or Billy Joel; since November he has scored five No. 1 albums on the Billboard charts. "Chip Davis somehow understands what people want," says Los Angeles Times critic Don Heckman.

Yet many critics dismiss Davis, 56, as a purveyor of schlock, the Lawrence Welk of New Age. They are not impressed that Mannheim Steamroller, whose name derives from the German for crescendo, has performed twice at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree or that right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is a big fan. Romantic Melodies, a recent CD that scored the biggest week-over-week sales increase in Billboard history, was scorned by one critic for "anesthetic properties (that) would surely soothe ... in a proctologist's waiting room." Another compared Mannheim's violin-heavy harmonies to an orchestra twirling a thousand rolls of toilet paper in the air at the same time.

There's no denying Davis' knack for channeling Middle America. Steering clear of the late-night cable-TV advertising favored by other New Age performers, Davis promotes his band on prime time with commercials, once by producing his own Christmas special on NBC and with an occasional invitation to perform on shows like televangelist Robert Schuller's Hour of Power. He has begun churning out an eclectic new line of products like melon-cucumber scented candles and a patchouli--ylang-ylang body lotion called Yam Seng, all inspired by his personal taste. "I guess I must be really representative of my fan demographic," he says. "They just like what I like."

The record industry didn't always see it that way. Major labels shunned Davis when he tried to launch his first Christmas album in the 1980s. So Davis founded his own company, American Gramaphone Records, now one of the largest independent labels. In 2003 consumers paid more than $70 million to buy Davis' CDs, attend his concerts and sample the other products he sells via catalog to a database of more than 600,000 fans.

Davis' business model might be called a Mannheim for All Seasons, which is also the name of one of his CD collections. Last year's Romantic Melodies targeted Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter. American Spirit, a collection including America the Beautiful and Star Spangled Banner, hit the window from Memorial Day to July 4. Davis keeps a hand in all phases of Mannheim Steamroller production. He composes, arranges and plays drums with the band. As owner of the label, he rakes in as much as $6 on every album sold, compared with the $1 or less many other major artists make. Back in the 1980s, Davis promoted Mannheim Steamroller by offering its trademark mixture of New Age melodies interspersed with sound effects (notably in the Fresh Aire CD series) to stereo and hi-fi dealers as demonstration tracks. Since then, he has set up a specialized distribution network, allowing him to sell at more than 40,000 non music retail outlets, including sporting-goods vendors, supermarkets, greeting-card emporiums and truck stops.

Mannheim Steamroller Lifestyle products, such as a spray-on barbecue sauce called Bry that Davis cooked up in his kitchen, complement the music. Sunday Morning Coffee, a CD of nonintrusive instrumentals to accompany reading the morning newspaper, helped launch Mannheim Steamroller's branded coffee and cinnamon hot chocolate, which have racked up nearly $2.5 million in sales.

The nerve center of this musical empire is Davis' home, on a 100-acre ranch outside Omaha, just 20 miles from the Strategic Air Command and its huge stockpile of nuclear weapons. He lives with his wife, his three children and several German shepherds and raises chickens, holds barbecues and peers through the telescope of his own astronomical observatory. In his basement is a well-equipped recording studio, in which he composes and mixes. Microphones are planted in the surrounding woodlands to record the natural sounds he incorporates into sound tracks. A private jet sits on a tarmac 15 minutes away by car.

A third-generation musician, Davis grew up in Sylvania, Ohio, and acquired a degree in bassoon from the University of Michigan. He began writing jingles and catchy versions of classical compositions. Then came the big break: Davis co-wrote a jingle for a bread company chronicling a fictional long-haul trucker named C.W. McCall and his main squeeze Mavis, a waitress at the "Old Home Filler-Up an' Keep On A-Truckin' Cafe." The ad eventually became the theme song of Convoy.

Davis has been throwing his considerable energy into nonprofit work. He recently paid to have a six-speaker sound system installed in a Minneapolis children's cancer-research center to see whether music provided the patients with comfort and relaxation. It did. Davis is planning meetings at several other major medical institutions to explore the possibility of a line of holistic musical balm. "You just try to connect the dots," says the Christmas elf. "One good thing might lead to another." In Davis' case, it already has.