Mannheim Steamroller creator reflects on the Christmas juggernaut

If one were to ask what music act is the best-selling Christmas artist, answers would invariably range from Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby to Mariah Carey, Josh Groban or Kenny G.

But that honor actually goes to Mannheim Steamroller, whose dozen Christmas albums (and counting) have racked up 31.5 million sales worldwide to date and are performing at Heartland Credit Union Arena, formerly Park City Arena, on Dec. 26.

And while Mannheim sounds like the name of a German heavy equipment apparatus, it is actually the nom de plume of Chip Davis, an Omaha-based composer/producer who has been churning out neoclassical new age holiday and secular music under this stage name since 1974.

Born Louis F. Davis, Jr., the Ohio native is a musical iconoclast and former child prodigy who went from writing his first piece of music at age 6 to eventually working at an ad agency writing jingles before founding this musical persona after numerous record labels shot down his neo-classical music pitch.

Mannheim Steamroller “was just my notion of trying to create a sound that was different, but also at the same time had classical roots to it,” Davis explained in a phone interview.

“I see it as an eclectic mix of classical forms alongside modern-day rock and roll instruments and some older instruments from the 18th century, like the harpsichord.”

While it may have been a daunting proposition to go forward on his own, Davis was already experiencing concurrent success via CW McCall, a country music persona created by ad agency client and late friend Bill Fries. With the latter providing the voice, concept and lyrics for McCall, Davis wrote the music. In addition to scoring a number of chart-topping country hits, the duo recorded the global No. 1 hit “Convoy” (and earned Davis the 1976 SESAC Country Music Writer of the Year). With the metaphorical wind blowing at his back, Davis founded the independent label American Gramaphone and took the name of his new project from a play on the 18th-century musical technique known as the “Mannheim crescendo.” The first in the “Fresh Aire” series of records was released in 1975 at a time when the new age genre was coming into being. Davis so believed in Mannheim Steamroller that he took out a loan to finance the first tour.

“On that initial tour, the money was used to cover the costs of playing those first three cities — Omaha, Denver and Salt Lake City,” he recalled. “That was in 1975. Mannheim Steamroller was a five-piece with two keyboards, a bass player that also doubled on lute and other fretted instruments. I was playing percussion and recorder, and we had another percussionist. Then, when we got to a city, we’d hire a small orchestra to play the orchestral parts that were on the record. Ironically, the band behind CW McCall are the same players that are the Mannheim Steamroller players.”

All this bootstrapping eventually led to Davis indulging his childhood adoration of the holiday season nearly a decade later via 1984’s “Christmas.”

That fascination with Christmas music grew into a cottage industry for Mannheim Steamroller, leading to another 11 Noel releases. Further opportunities sprang up and included performing at the White House for the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony three times under three different administrations in addition to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Davis has also produced Mannheim Steamroller holiday ice-skating shows involving other well-known stars like the late Olivia Newton John, Martina McBride, Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano.

Currently, two traveling troupes of Mannheim Steamroller perform across the country every holiday season, with a third ensemble playing at Universal Orlando Resort during the holidays. Hip surgery a decade ago means Davis has hung up his touring shoes.

So these days, Davis hangs out on his 150-acre farm just north of Omaha. But rather than live the life of a country gentleman, the 78-year-old musician’s restless creative spirit has continued to yield musical fruit in the past two decades ranging from albums focusing on Disney music (1999’s “Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse”) and American heritage (2003’s “American Spirit”) to amassing a notable catalog of natural sounds, from the Tucson desert to the full sonic span of all four seasons in the Midwest highlighted in his “Ambience” series. His latest creation is “Exotic Spaces,” a series that finds him casting his musical net rather widely.