TBY Column: Music Memories: Alex Mehner

Alex Mehner is the feature for this month’s installment of “Music Memories.” At age 27, he doesn’t qualify to be a typical feature for “The Best Years.” However, for the past three years, he has been an integral part of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as they tour the U.S. Most of us who grew up in Southeast Missouri in the 1970s remember the band’s groundbreaking “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. Mehner will be a part of the 50th Celebration Show, which will happen at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., this fall.

Alex Mehner and his twin brother, Aaron, were born in Cape Girardeau on Aug. 3, 1995.

Alex attended Clippard Elementary, Cape Central Junior High and Cape Central High School. He began playing guitar at age 12. In seventh grade, he joined the orchestra at Cape Central Junior High and played violin. While he is a self-taught guitarist, he studied violin privately with Mel Gilhaus through junior high and high school.

He was active in the Cape Central Orchestra, jazz band, baseball team, track team, National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America. While in high school, he was a member of the Southeast Missouri Symphony and performed with the SEMO Symphony when they toured to Washington D.C. and New York City in 2013.

Throughout high school, Alex performed often as a member of Forgotten Past. The band, made up of Alex on guitar, his brother Aaron on bass, his friend Jordan Stone on drums, and his dad John on guitar and vocals were a fixture at SEMO and Cape Central Tailgates, as well as at various benefit events and gigs in the area.

As a member of Cape La Croix United Methodist Church, he was active with the praise team as guitarist and as a member of the tech team. Alex cites Bill Shivelbine, who serves as front-house sound engineer at La Croix, as a major influence in “learning the ropes” of audio engineering.

Shivelbine recalls Alex was an enthusiastic and inquisitive kid. Shivelbine says he knew Alex was a “cut above” immediately, saying when Alex asked, “What is this?” he didn’t move ahead to the next blinking light or gadget; instead, he would ask, “How do you apply that in a musical situation?”

Shivelbine hired Alex to work an Eddie Money concert at the former Isle Casino. According to Alex, “It was my first behind-the-scenes, on-the-job,

real-application sound experience. I decided then that was going to be my career path.”

After graduating from Cape Central in 2014, Alex attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., where he majored in audio engineering technology. He continued his study of violin and was a member of the Belmont Symphony for two years. During college, he immersed himself in the music business, networking and making connections at shows.

One of his best connections has been famed Nashville nightspot 3rd & Lindsley Bar & Grill. The venue features up-and-coming Nashville music artists, as well as seasoned veterans. Alex walked up “cold” his second year at college and asked if he could shadow and learn from the regular house engineer. He soon was hired on as an assistant, and after five years, has graduated to head sound engineer for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening shows, when he is typically home and off the road. A typical Monday night features The Time Jumpers, which is a 10-piece Western swing piece band made up of some of Nashville’s most-respected studio and touring musicians, most notably Vince Gill on guitar. According to Alex, he learned more from connections in the city than sitting in the “Belmont Bubble” or restricting his efforts to the Belmont campus. He graduated in 2017.

Since graduation, he has toured with Gary Allan, Guy Penrod, Shenandoah, Gin Blossoms and Lone Bellow, but most notably, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released the three-disc masterpiece “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” in 1972. With help from country music icons Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin and a host of others, the album went triple platinum and wound up in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

“As someone who grew up exclusively on classic rock and blues from the ‘60s to ‘70s thanks to my dad, I was rather uneducated in country music from the same era until touring with Nitty Gritty,” Alex says of the album. “Hearing firsthand stories on the bus of how ‘Circle I’ came to be has been eye-opening for me. It not only catapulted the band’s career, but also revolutionized what a country/bluegrass album could look like. I can’t even put into words how special it is. 2022 marks the 50th year of this historic album, and to celebrate, we are doing two nights at the famed Ryman Auditorium this fall, where a host of special guests will sit in and accompany many of the album’s most memorable songs.”

Alex will be on the sidelines of the Ryman stage, making sure everyone on stage has a monitor mix to ensure an exceptional performance.

Since his audio career began, Alex has traveled to all 50 states and four countries, including Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Mexico. He often has the opportunity to mix business with pleasure and has hiked and camped in 42 of the 63 U.S. National Parks.

Steve Schaffner is the director of the Music Academy at Southeast Missouri State University. Previously, he was the orchestra director for Cape Girardeau Public Schools and Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School in Augusta, Ga. He has performed and/or directed in 48 states and 11 countries.