Harrisburg blues legend Mitch Ivanoff has died: ‘He really was a remarkable guy’

Mitch Ivanoff

Blues guitarist Mitch Ivanoff

A local legend in the Harrisburg area music scene has passed away.

Mitch Ivanoff, nicknamed "Big Mitch” or "Tiny,” died on June 8.

“Mitch was 6’8’’ and weighted about 400 pounds,” said Lee Carroll, a friend and bandmate of Ivanoff’s. “He was an enormous person. During the time I knew him, he didn’t have any hair. He essentially looked like a big Buddha. And he was the most loving, generous person I ever met.”

Carroll met Ivanoff roughly 10 years ago at a blues club in Harrisburg. Carroll, who had moved from Kentucky and given up performing for over 26 years, was moved to join a jam session of which Ivanoff was a part.

“I sat there that night, and this guy got up to play. And he’s enormous! It’s like ‘Game of Thrones’, the Mountain! He straps on this guitar and plays the [expletive] out of it. He really plays the blues. A lot of people think they can play the blues, but very few are just naturally express themselves that way. He wasn’t trying to sound like somebody, he was very genuine.”

Soon after, Ivanoff and Carroll formed the group Tin Can Buddha with Carroll’s friend Rodney Hatfield.

“Rodney came up with the name,” Carroll said. “It wasn’t based on Mitch, but it was still appropriate. And on the album cover, we had a friend who took a picture of Mitch without his shirt on. And that kind of stuck with Mitch.”

Ivanoff was born in 1952, and began working at a local steel mill in his teens. Carroll observed that Ivanoff was beloved wherever he went, whether it was being elected to a safety position by his fellow steel mill union members, or by random strangers in the crowds of his blues shows.

“Women would walk up to him who didn’t even know him and hug him,” Carroll said. “He would just emote this peace and love and joy of living. And so he really was a remarkable guy. He wasn’t just another guy who played guitar in Harrisburg.”

Ivanoff also performed as a solo act, as well as with the band Krypton City Blues Revue. He and his bands released several boutique albums, and played such venues as the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

“Mitch gained a level of respect in Kentucky – you don’t get any respect in your home town, as far as a musician,” Carroll said. “But when he came down here, he was lifted up and elevated and appreciated for the talent that he had.”

Ivanoff was active in the Blues Society of Central PA, and with Krypton City Blues, represented the region in an international blues competition in Memphis.

Eventually, health issues prevented Ivanoff from touring, and he suffered from various ailments preceding his death.

“He’d had a lot of health problems over the last six to eight years,” Carroll said. “But we’d remained very close friends. You walk in the room and look at Mitch, you could tell there was something special about him. You want to go up to him and meet him and talk to him. I can’t imagine anyone having a bad word to say about Mitch."

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