STEPHEN MITCHELL

Stephen Mitchell is the guitarist and a vocalist for Mainstream.

Stephen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1951. He started teaching himself how to play guitar in Altadena, California in about 1965. This was using a guitar that was about 75 years old and hand-made by his grandmother's uncle.

He joined the Army in 1969 and tried to pick up his guitar studies where he left off after his discharge. He got his first electric guitar and amplifier in the late 1980's. His son at the time spotted an ad for a "rhythm guitarist wanted" in the Victorville (CA) Daily Press and he has played regularly ever since, except for two years while his was getting his Master's Degree.

Stephen is the former president of the San Bernardino Chapter of the California Country Music Association. He received their "Eagle Award" for his work in that position. While in that position he had the pleasure of meeting and working with several people well known in old country music circles.

Stephen is also a former member of the Academy of Country Music and a past judge for the Ace True Value/GMC Country Showdown.

In 2001, Steve received a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the BoJack Humanitarian Committee (BHC) for Role Model and Community Service work primarily in the area of fighting domestic violence. The BHC is made up of film industry professionals of Native American origin. Steve shared the award that year with Steven Speilberg, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Streisand, and Pamela Lee Anderson.

Steve has played in primarily country music bands throughout Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. His influences are known to all be bad so he does not want to share them with anyone. Hedonists can be stingy sometimes.

He has worked over 20 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he is responsible for administrating contracts for spacecraft and spacecraft subsystems and instruments.

Stephen lives in Victorville, California with his wife Anavilla, and has five children spread out all over the country. He leaves in his wake a whole passel of guitar teachers with big patches of their hair torn out.