Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
Eddy Mann has been a full-time musician for most of his adult life, a fact for which he is grateful. “I went to business school…In my second year I decided I was going to take some time off and get ‘the music thing’ our of my blood,” Eddy remembers. “A lifetime later, here I am…I have really truly been blessed…I’ve always had an income.”
He continues, “I’m really happy with the niche that I’ve grown to have. There’s an audience that finds what my message is relevant, and I’m thankful that I have a platform to share it with people.”
After17 albums, Eddy wears the label “prolific” authentically. “I’ve always got multiple projects I’m working on…I write all the time. I never sit around thinking ‘What am I gonna do next?
Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Eddy spends most summers there, doing shows with a band. He calls Melbourne Beach, FL home the rest of the year, focusing on solo performances. Over the long years of his career, he played with many combination of people, but often found himself dissatisfied with how things went, or restricted by the band format. “The reason that I started doing solo dates as a singer-songwriter was because my wife got tired of me complaining about the bands…I went out and realized this was what I always wanted—I wanted the opportunity to change the set or change the arrangement mid-stream…As it turned out…after I accepted that role, that’s when I ended up finding a group of musicians that not only were above my expectations, but they loved playing in the same environment…”
Eddy’s latest album is called Trio and features 12 songs that he wrote during the month of February, 2022 after taking on the February Album Writing Month challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. (He ended up with a total of 18.) “It’s the last thing I really needed to do,” Eddy laughs, “because I don’t have problems writing songs. I just thought it might be a good discipline for me…” The primary influence on his writing came from listening to organ-based jazz trio music the month before. The format informed his approach to recording February’s bounty of songs.
By Dan Walsh