Stephen Arnold "Steve" Mandell ( – March 14, 2018) was an American bluegrass guitarist and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

ist. Most notably, he is known for the 1973 instrumental hit "

Dueling Banjos "Dueling Banjos" is a bluegrass composition by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. The song was composed in 1954 by Smith as a banjo instrumental he called "Feudin' Banjos," which contained riffs from Smith, recorded in 1955 playing a four-string plec ...

," recorded in duo with

Eric Weissberg Eric Weissberg (August 16, 1939 – March 22, 2020) was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist, whose most commercially successful recording was his banjo solo in "Dueling Banjos," featured as the theme of the film ''Deliver ...

and was awarded a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

Life and career

Mandell was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and grew up in

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

and

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

. In the early 1960s, along with mandolinist

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

, he was part of the Garrett Mountain Boys. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mandell was a prominent session musician, and he played on

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

live album ''

The Judy Collins Concert ''The Judy Collins Concert'' is a 1964 live album by American singer and songwriter Judy Collins, which included combined traditional folk material with songs by Bob Dylan and Tom Paxton. It was recorded on March 21, 1964 at the Town Hall in Ne ...

'' (1964) and studio album ''

True Stories and Other Dreams ''True Stories and Other Dreams'' is the ninth studio album by American singer and songwriter Judy Collins, released by Elektra Records in 1973. It peaked at No. 27 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums charts. The album included Valerie Carter's " ...

'' (1973), among others. In 1972, Mandell recorded "

" with another session musician,

. In 1973, the single peaked at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, No. 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles, and No. 1 on

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart, and the tune was the theme of the 1972 film ''

Deliverance ''Deliverance'' is a 1972 American survival thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapted ...

''. The song was also nominated for the 1972

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

in the Best Original Song category. "Dueling Banjos" won the 1974

Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance was awarded from 1970 to 2011. Between 1986 and 1989 the award was presented as the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group or Soloist). In 2012 the award ...

. In 1973, the album ''Dueling Banjos'' by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell peaked at No.1 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

. Mandell also worked on Broadway, and played in the 1976 musical '' The Robber Bridegroom''. He also recorded advertising jingles. In 1988, he left New York and moved to Baltimore. He died of prostate cancer on March 14, 2018, at the age of 76. He was an

Owings Mills, Maryland Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus o ...

resident at the time of his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandell, Steve Date of birth missing 1940s births 2018 deaths American banjoists American country banjoists American bluegrass guitarists Jewish American musicians Grammy Award winners People from Owings Mills, Maryland Year of birth uncertain 21st-century American Jews