David Mansfield (born September 13, 1956) is an American musician and composer.
Mansfield was raised in
Leonia, New Jersey. His father, Newton Mansfield was a first violinist in the
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...
. David played guitar, pedal steel guitar and fiddle in his first band, called
Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends, which also included two sons of
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...
.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
asked Mansfield to tour with him on his 1975
Rolling Thunder Revue
The Rolling Thunder Revue was a 1975–76 concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with numerous musicians and collaborators. The purpose of the tour was to allow Dylan, who was a major recording artist and concert performer, to play ...
tour; he remained in Dylan's band through their 1978 world tour.
After the Revue ended in 1976, Mansfield and two other members of Dylan's band,
T-Bone Burnett and
Steven Soles, formed
The Alpha Band. The band released three albums, ''
The Alpha Band'' in 1977, ''
Spark in the Dark'' in 1977, and ''
The Statue Makers of Hollywood'' in 1978. While Mansfield in 1978 was working on the album, ''The Statue Makers of Hollywood'' with The Alpha Band, he appeared as a guitarist on ''
Desire Wire'' by a struggling pop/rock artist
Cindy Bullens that same year.
In 1986, Mansfield was an initial member of
Bruce Hornsby and the Range, including playing the title instrument on the hit "
Mandolin Rain". However, he left the Range before their first tour.
Since The Alpha Band broke up, Mansfield has continued to work as a musician in sessions for Dylan, Burnett,
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
,
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program ''Austin City Limits'', starting in 1985 during season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on th ...
,
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn (; born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician, best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the band. As a so ...
,
Sam Phillips,
Mark Heard,
The Roches,
Edie Brickell,
Spinal Tap,
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Gayl Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, ''Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album), Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and ''Happy Woman Blues'' (198 ...
,
Dwight Yoakam,
Victoria Williams,
Loudon Wainwright III,
Willie Nile,
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman (born December 4, 1944) is an American musician. He was the original bassist of the Byrds. With frequent collaborator Gram Parsons, Hillman was a key figure in the development of country rock, defining the genre through his w ...
and
Herb Pedersen and others.
Mansfield composed the music for the 1980 film ''
Heaven's Gate'' – he appeared in the movie, playing the fiddle on
roller skates – and has since gone on to write scores for a number of other films, including others directed by ''Heaven's Gate's''
Michael Cimino
Michael Antonio Cimino ( , ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. He achieved fame as the director of ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture and ...
. Mansfield cobbled together the soundtrack album for ''
Songcatcher''. He also composed the music for the soundtrack to ''
The Ballad of Little Jo'' (1993), a movie written and directed by
Maggie Greenwald, whom he married in 1994. Together they adopted two children. Maisie Mansfield-Greenwald (1997) and Lulu Mansfield-Greenwald (2000). He also composed the score with
Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, record producer, singer, and former Warner Bros. Records executive whose work encompasses orchestral pop, elaborate recording experiments, Ame ...
for
Walter Hill
Walter Hill (born January 10, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer known for his action films and revival of the Western (genre), Western genre. He has directed such films as ''The Driver'', ''The Warriors (film), The ...
's ''
Broken Trail'' (2006), and they were nominated for a
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...
for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score).
Filmography
*1980 ''
Heaven's Gate''
*1985 ''
Year of the Dragon''
*1986 ''
Club Paradise''
*1987 ''
The Sicilian
''The Sicilian'' is a novel by American author Mario Puzo. Published in 1984 by Random House, Random House Publishing Group (), it is based on the life of Sicilians, Sicilian Banditry, bandit Salvatore Giuliano. It is set in the same universe ...
''
*1989 ''
Miss Firecracker''
*1990 ''
Desperate Hours''
*1991 ''
Late for Dinner''
*1992 ''
Me and Veronica''
*1993 ''
The Ballad of Little Jo''
*1995 ''
Outlaws: The Legend of O.B. Taggart''
*1996 ''
Deep Crimson''
*1997 ''
Floating''
*1997 ''
Road Ends''
*1997 ''
The Apostle''
*1998 ''
El evangelio de las maravillas''
*1998 ''
Dark Harbor''
*1999 ''
Tumbleweeds
A tumbleweed is a kind of plant habit or structure.
Tumbleweed, tumble-weed or tumble weed may also refer to:
Films
* Tumbleweeds (1925 film), ''Tumbleweeds'' (1925 film), William S. Hart film
* Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935 film), ''Tumbling Tumble ...
''
*1999 ''
No One Writes to the Colonel''
*2000 ''
Such Is Life''
*2000 ''
Ropewalk
A ropewalk is a long straight narrow lane, or a covered pathway, where long strands of material are laid before being twisted into rope. Due to the length of some ropewalks, workers may use bicycles to get from one end to the other.
Many ropew ...
''
*2000 ''
A Good Baby''
*2000 ''
Songcatcher''
*2002 ''
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood''
*2003 ''
Flora's Garment Bursting Into Bloom''
*2005 ''
Transamerica''
*2006 ''
Stephanie Daley''
*2006 ''
Diggers
The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), Will ...
''
*2006 ''
El carnaval de Sodoma''
*2007 ''
Then She Found Me''
*2008 ''
The Guitar''
*2011 ''
Certainty
Certainty (also known as epistemic certainty or objective certainty) is the epistemic property of beliefs which a person has no rational grounds for doubting. One standard way of defining epistemic certainty is that a belief is certain if and ...
''
*2011 ''
The Reasons of the Heart''
*2013 ''
The Last Keepers''
*2016 ''
Sophie and the Rising Sun''
*2019 ''
Devil Between the Legs''
*2023 ''
Killers of the Flower Moon''
References
External links
David Mansfield Official Website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansfield, David
1956 births
American blues guitarists
American fiddlers
American film score composers
American folk guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock guitarists
Place of birth missing (living people)
Bruce Hornsby and the Range members
Living people
Guitarists from New Jersey
Pedal steel guitarists
People from Leonia, New Jersey
20th-century American guitarists
American male film score composers
21st-century American violinists
Varèse Sarabande Records artists
Musicians from Bergen County, New Jersey