Steven J. "Steve" Tannen (born 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for being in the folk-pop duo The Weepies.

Early life and career

Tannen was born in New York City, but grew up in Australia and Canada in addition to New York. He started performing at an early age and learned music at home. He is the grandson of magician Louis Tannen and the brother of songwriter Greg Tannen and screenwriter Robert Tannen. Steve graduated from

Mamaroneck High School Mamaroneck High School is a public school located in Mamaroneck, New York. The school is part of the Mamaroneck Union Free School District. Students residing in neighboring Larchmont also attend this school. Ranking Mamaroneck High school i ...

. He received a degree in English from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Tannen worked as a production assistant in Hollywood, becoming a script reader and assistant to film director

Norman Jewison Norman Frederick Jewison (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical Social issue, social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects acces ...

. He interned at radio station

KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...

, and then moved to Colorado to work for the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundat ...

(NCAR). He left NCAR after a year and worked odd jobs around the US, developing a personal mix of

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and rock. He returned to New York and, with the help from former

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter of Folk music, folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the ...

guitarist Jon Gordon, started a rock and roll project. This turned into his debut album ''"Big Señorita"'' which was chosen as one of Performing Songwriter Magazine's Top 12 Independent Releases of 2001. In 2001, while touring behind ''Big Senorita'', Tannen met his future wife and musical partner Deb Talan at a show at

Club Passim Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina (now Chopra) and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 (based on its then address, 47 Mount Auburn Stre ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. His second solo CD ''"Stopped at a Green Light"'' was released in September 2003; this was quickly followed by the first Weepies album ''

Happiness Happiness is a complex and multifaceted emotion that encompasses a range of positive feelings, from contentment to intense joy. It is often associated with positive life experiences, such as achieving goals, spending time with loved ones, ...

'' in December of that same year. In addition to The Weepies' albums, Talan and Tannen collaborated with singer/actress

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her 1999 debut single "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot ...

on her 2007 album '' Wild Hope''. Together, they wrote and recorded five songs with Mandy – the single "

Extraordinary Extraordinary may refer to: Music * "Extraordinary" (Clean Bandit song), 2014 * "Extraordinary" (Liz Phair song), 2004 * "Extraordinary" (Mandy Moore song), 2007 * "Extraordinary", a song by Idina Menzel from '' Idina'', 2016 * "Extraordinary", ...

," the title track "Wild Hope," "All Good Things," "Few Days Down" and "Looking Forward to Looking Back." Steve is also a member of The Tannen Brothers, in which he plays with his brother Greg Tannen.

Discography

References

External links

Official siteSteve Tannen collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

's live music archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Tannen, Steve 1968 births American folk-pop singers American male singer-songwriters Living people Mamaroneck High School alumni