Steve Arvey…..Interview Facts!

Meet the Music Man, Steve Arvey……

Meeting Steve Arvey in Starbucks in the morning is an interesting experience.  He’s trying to crank himself awake with some high-test coffee and making jokes with a totally straight face.  My favorite one is “Well, that went over like a pork chop at a Bar Mitzvah”. He is an enigma in the Sarasota/Bradenton/Tampa music scene and is probably the only musician working 6 and 7 nights a week.  That’s why meeting him at 9 a.m. is a wondrous experience.

Having grown up in Chicago, Steve was exposed to blues and rock music, but didn’t pick up a guitar till he was 13, and it wasn’t a great relationship.  He put the guitar down and didn’t pick it back up till he was 16, and then was completely motivated to become a solid player.

Off he went to the University of Florida, where he played gigs to pay his way through college.  During that time the pot was simmering and he was growing as a player and grabbing onto every experience he could find to be around the music arena.  He is an accomplished guitar player, singer, and organizer.  The organizer part came as he grew to be dedicated to giving back by organizing and playing fundraising events in the communities where he is living, like Sarasota, but also traveling to do gigs every night to every conceivable venue there is.

One of Steve Arvey’s honorable qualities is that he is motivated and dedicated to helping charities by organizing events and bringing in talent.  He formed Ladies Sing the Blues, which is a great group of talented blues and ballad singers who give their services for free to raise money for breast cancer, Manatee Children’s Services and the American Heart Association, to name a few.  His heart was to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and there are many charities lined up for future reference. It was a great event in May where thousands dollars were raised for the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

This past summer Steve and his lovely significant other, Rebecca Bird, traveled to the Chicago Blues Festival and played with some of the greats.  He’s so versatile and talented that everyone wants to play with him.

Steve shared with me that he was a Financial Planner in his “old” life, and his Dad had hoped he’d become a lawyer.  We’re really glad that you came back to your passion, Steve, which is music.  Steve eats, sleeps, and talks music.  That’s why we call him The Music Man.