Steamboat Pilot & Today

Jay Mogil was smoking a cigarette when he heard Shannon Hance's voice for the first time. He put out his smoke and went inside.

She was singing "Fight for Your Life," a song she wrote.

"I was touched," Mogil said. "And I knew right away we needed her to front our band."

Hance has a clear, Grace Slick singing voice, and it's hard to imagine what the newest local band, Mahna-Mahna, would sound like without her at the microphone.

But getting her on stage "was like pulling teeth," she said. Despite her belting voice, Hance is incredibly shy and gets embarrassed when someone compliments her talent.

"I have a love-hate relationship with music," she said.

"I think it helps to have the support of the whole band behind her," Mogil said. Mahna-Mahna, named after the Muppets song, is a band of five close friends that formed throughout several months in the living room of Mogil's trailer. The group started with drummer Greg Hance and guitar player Jeffrey Winick jamming together. Before long, they had Mogil on keyboards, then bass player Carol Ives and finally, after a lot of convincing, Shannon Hance.

The group plays all original tunes in a style Mogil compares to Sarah McLachlan with a reggae vibe.

They officially started playing together in September, slowly building a following of people who stopped by to listen to them practice. They played their first gig New Year's Eve at Hahn's Peak Cafe and played again last weekend at Mogil's 35th birthday party.

With a band name and some momentum building, they plan to gig regularly in Steamboat. Their stage presence is mellow, complete with candlelight, in an attempt to hang onto the living-room atmosphere that got them started.