by Karyn Mueller for The Lowdown.
To further highlight the outstanding musicians on Delta Tales, let me tell you a little about the man behind some of those screaming guitar solos. Steve Schuffert is a multi-talented, self-taught musician from New Castle, PA who has been playing since the age of four. Steve attributes much of his musical influence to none other than John Blangero!
“While my musical fire had already been lit by seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964, all of John’s influences certainly increased my excitement and desire to be a musician.”
Steve—who got his first big break in 1985 when he was asked to join the rock group The Godz—has a long and impressive musical history. He has been a member of major label recording acts including Left End who had two regional number one records, The Godz, a support act for Metallica's first headline tour playing arenas across the USA, and with Glen Burtnik, who had a top 40 hit with Follow You.
Steve later signed with Fortune Records in Europe and proceeded to release nine CDs and play 17 extensive tours across the continent with his band (The Steve Schuffert Band), thus acquiring a large cult following, the band played many of Europe's most prestigious venues and cities, including the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival.
In 1993, Steve moved to Nashville after signing a songwriting publishing deal with award winning artist T. Graham Brown (Capitol Records). Steve served as Brown’s guitarist for many years on road dates across the USA and performed many times at the Grand Ole Opry’s Ryman Auditorium and on major network television shows out of Nashville. Steve was a featured guitarist on the late B.E. Taylor's hugely successful Christmas Tour, selling out halls in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia every year.
Fast forward to early 2020 when John reached out to Steve to do guitar tracks on several songs for his new Sun King Rising album “Delta Tales.” You can hear Steve on several tracks on Delta Tales, but in my opinion, the solo on “Beneath the Southern Sun” is simply amazing! Steve (who is also John’s first cousin) summed up his experience working on Delta Tales like this - “In a way it feels like it’s all come full circle and we’ve reconnected musically once again 40 years later, how cool is that?”
It’s VERY cool, Steve!
The Steve Schuffert Band has been together for many years, releasing nine well-received CD's. The Tennessean newspaper, in a review of the Tin Pan South Songwriter Festival, called Steve “Most Valuable Player.” Steve has performed or jammed on stage as the guitarist with the following artists: Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Hornsby, Patty Smyth, Southside Johnny, Donnie Iris, Paul Carrack, David Keith, Alex Harvey, Gary Nicholson, Jimmy Hall, and Reese Wynans.
We look forward to Steve again applying his wizardry to Sun King Rising II.
Steve does Internet remote sessions for songwriters. If you’d like him to play on one your recordings you can contact him via email steveschuffert@yahoo.com
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