Nashville, TN (TOP40 Charts/ Artist Official website) -- Early reviews have praised Alt-Country singer/songwriter Steff Mahan's new CD �Never A Long Way Home' as being "an honest and brave step in an age where voices are airbrushed as easily as pictures," and having "a wonderfully world-weary sense of heartbreak." For Mahan, who didn't launch her career until she was forty years old, the comments are a fresh reminder that just because naysayers might've labeled her as �too old', �too commercial', �not commercial enough' or lacking the right �look', her perseverance was worthwhile.
Steff Mahan Earns Raves for "Honest & Brave" 'Never A Long Way Home'
"A Wonderfully World-Weary Sense of Heartbreak Conveyed Not as Volatile Emotion but as a Quiet, Brooding Sadness"
"An Honest and Brave Step in an Age Where Voices are Airbrushed as Easily as Pictures"
"A Soulful Serenade of Her Life"
"Without resorting to artifice or clich�s, Steff Mahan has a gift for writing songs that sneak up on you and, before you know it, get you all teary-eyed. And the stories behind them might just do the same."
Mahan considers this CD, her third, to be a reflection of her �broken life', a topic she discusses in recent press coverage, below. Mahan sculpts tales of regret and real life that mirror the struggles we face each day. With a deft touch and vivid writing that at times recalls Mary Chapin Carpenter's �Stones In The Road', Mahan emerges as an �everywoman,' even as she gets raw and personal.
COLORADO SPRINGS INDEPENDENT
Steff Mahan's musical path produces a soulful serenade of her life
Without resorting to artifice or clich�s, Steff Mahan has a gift for writing songs that sneak up on you and, before you know it, get you all teary-eyed. And the stories behind them might just do the same.
"The first two records were really about a broken heart, and then with the third record, I went through a really bad way of life for a while," says Mahan, who'd wondered if she'd even make a third record. "I went through a bad breakup � I was with the same person for 17 years � and I also lost my best friend. So the third record, I think, is about a broken life, and trying to find my way back to who I am and who I was raised to be by my mama and daddy."
Which, based on Mahan's songs and stories, is a highly sensitive and intelligent person. Raised in small-town Illinois and now living in Nashville, her songs have been recorded by major country artists like Patty Loveless and Tim McGraw, but have yet to make it to their finished albums.
Still, it's all just a matter of time. And in the meantime, the singer-songwriter's albums prove that she has no problem getting her own songs across beautifully.
The way we were
One of Mahan's most powerful song is "I Tend to Lose Things," which was written in honor of an elderly neighbor who became like family to her after she moved to one of the poorest parts of Nashville. Louise turned out to be a 30-year recluse whose late husband had marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.
Intent on celebrating Louise's birthday, Mahan was surprised to learn that her friend didn't know when it was.
"I'm like, 'How can you not know when your birthday is?' And she said, 'Baby girl, when I was born, they just didn't care about another little black baby being born.' And she just said it so matter of fact, she wasn't mad or sad or angry, that's just how it was. And I was so angry for her."
During one of her daily visits, Louise handed Mahan the sunglasses her husband had worn during that historic march. "I folded them up and I gave them back. I said, 'Louise, thank you, but I cannot take these.' And she got teary-eyed, she looked at me and she said, 'Baby girl' � she was always calling me baby girl � 'you're the only family I got. You have to have these, you got to wear them proud.' And so I wore them about three years, and I lost them about three weeks after I lost Louise."
Home truths
Mahan has written songs about her parents that are no less moving. In "Carnival Ride," from her new album, Never a Long Way Home, she recalls how, one summer when she was 5, she'd wanted to see the carnival that was coming to town. Her father was on strike at the time, which meant they couldn't afford to go. Instead, she remembers him putting her on top of his shoulders and running through the back yard and it ended up being one of the best summers ever.
Mahan says she wrote the song after her parents moved out of the house that she'd grown up in and all their friends had gathered for a farewell party.
"After everyone left, it was about nine o'clock and I stood in my backyard and just started crying, because I was never going to see this house again, this was not my home anymore after all those years of living there."
Big boobs, big hair
When Mahan's not out on the road performing, she often does songwriting sessions with other artists back home in Nashville: "I just love writing with writers that are actually writers," she says. "But nowadays, all the artists are wanting to write. It was so weird, because this one girl came in � I won't mention any names � but she was picking up a writing session with me. And the girl did not bring a piece of paper, a pencil, a pen, a notebook, a guitar, an idea � she brought nothing. Except her big boobs and that was it. She couldn't even really sing."
But don't all artists who can't sing go to Los Angeles?
"Oh trust me," says Mahan, "you can succeed in Nashville fine if you don't sing. We have the same equipment they have in L.A., just bigger boobs and bigger hair."
Especially hair.
"The bigger the hair, the closer to God," she says. "We do live in the Bible Belt."
Mahan's other extracurricular activities include an Etsy site where she sells her photographs of heart-shaped rocks. Once you start noticing them, she says, you find them all over. She figures she has about a thousand of them now, and has more recently begun finding rocks shaped like four leaf clovers.
So which does Mahan trust more, the hearts or the clovers?
"Neither," she says with a laugh. "I mean, the clovers haven't done me much good. But the truth is, I do have a good life. I'm not rich, I'm not famous, but I do what I love. And that's more than most people can say." By Bill Forman 4/15/10
https://www.csindy.com/colorado/broken-hearts-and-carnival-rides/Content?oid=1679489
Wildy's World
Four-Star CD Review
Steff Mahan - Never A Long Way Home
By Wildy Haskell
https://wildysworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-steff-mahan-never-long-way-home.html
Steff Mahan is a survivor. She's been told she can't be a recording artist/working musician. Either she's too told, too commercial, not commercial enough... all of the various reasons used to discourage an artist. Luckily the true artist never lets such admonishments get in their way. Mahan creates music for herself, but after not really starting her career until the age of 40, Mahan isn't inclined to give up on the dream. It's a good thing, too. Mahan's third album, Never A Long Way Home is her best to date. Mahan sings about aches and breaks of the heart while she puts the pieces together again and moves on down the road.
Never A Long Way Home was recorded live with little or no touch-up work. The approach is fitting for Mahan, an honest and brave step in an age where voices are airbrushed as easily as pictures. Mahan opens with "If I Let You Go", a gritty piece of country rock that's very catchy. Steff Mahan has a wonderful voice that's rough-yet-supple. "If I Let You Go" could do serious damage on the country charts. "Save Yourself" is an altruistic take on the end of a relationship. It's the first of several break-up/just broke up songs on the album. "Can't Hurt Me Anymore" is all about surviving a breakup and moving on. Mahan's backing band eschews the overly-glossed sound Nashville has spun as country music in favor of a classic sound.
"Never A Long Way Home" is a testament to the fact that life is never what we expect it will be; that our personal realities rarely stand up in the face of truth. It's a nuanced and intelligent musical exploration and is gorgeously voiced. In "Forgive Me", Mahan seeks absolution for missed chances. At first the request is of the one she missed out on, but ultimately Mahan seeks to forgive herself. The absolute highlight of the album is "Carnival Ride", a loving tribute to her father based on a childhood memory that turns into a life lesson. The melody and arrangement are beautiful; the lyrics touching without a drop of saccharine.
Mahan explores how loss can linger in "Things I Knew About You". The crux of the song isn't the immediate loss of the person, but the loss of familiarity over time with someone you once perhaps never imagined you'd be without. Mahan conveys a wonderfully world-weary sense of heartbreak conveyed not as volatile emotion but as a quiet, brooding sadness. On "Pray For Peace" Mahan explores the need for peace against the back drop of two distinct struggles: a mother watching her 4 year old suffer and finally praying for it to end, and a mother watching other mother's sons and daughters killed in wartime and praying for an end there as well. The song is heartfelt and likely to be a tearjerker if it touches close to home. "Thought We Were Dancing" is a sad-but-wry song about friendship and how it sometimes turns into love without one or both realizing it. It's a solid tune that may have been a better closer than the actual last song, "When I Need It Most". "When I Need It Most" is a plaintive plea for love and support that just doesn't have the heart of the rest of the album.
The music industry has always had a jaded perspective of age and style. The search is always for next big thing, as long as the next big thing doesn't deviate too much from the current big thing. Steff Mahan is not likely to ever get the respect she deserves from the music establishment, but the songs and performances on Never A Long Way Home certainly deserve some serious attention. It's not a perfect experience, and Mahan wouldn't have it any other way. Never A Long Way Home reflects the bumps and bruises that happen on the road of life, but in the darkness of heartache Mahan sketches out a rough sort of beauty with her words and voice. Never A Long Way Home is the sort of compelling album that will keep you coming back for more. Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)
