From There to Here
by Wayne Laepple
Steve Mitchell has followed a long and winding road from his birthplace in Troy to Pittsburgh, then to San Francisco, back to Troy and finally to Lewisburg. Along the way, Mitchell, 64, collected a Grammy award and played drums with a galaxy of stars, ranging from Van Morrison to Lou Rawls and the Smothers Brothers, to the Joffrey Ballet to Snoopy. For more than 50 years, this big, shambling, bear of a man has kept the beat for some of the biggest names in music, earning a reputation as a studio musician who could sight read and play in virtually any style. He grew up in a musical family in Troy, living on a dairy farm. His parents, he said, earned extra cash by playing piano, guitar and fiddle for square dances and in roadhouses all over Bradford County.
By the time he earned a full scholarship to Duquesne University, young Mitchell was already carrying a Musicians Union card. He'd been to all the regional and state bands and had even attended Stan Kenton music camp two years running. He started drum lessons when he was 11, passing on what he learned to other guys younger than himself. At 12, he was doing drum tracks for Ted Ballard, a fellow Troy native who composed "Mr. Sandman" and other hits. "A guy asked me to sit in for a gig at a bar when I was 12 or 13," he chuckles. "They gave me a couple of beers and fed me, and at the end of the night, he asked me if $35 was OK for the night. I had been mowing lawns for a dollar each. I had found my niche."
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