Blue Collar Band CD mixes live, studio tracks

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By David Burke | Wednesday, August 8, 2007 6:18 PM CDT | () comments

Forty years ago, Jim Van Acker and Rick Maddelein recorded a 45 rpm single in the same Chicago studio where The Buckinghams created their hit songs.

“I was on my honeymoon,” Maddelein recalled.

A lot’s changed since that single was recorded on vinyl, but drummer Van Acker and guitarist Maddelein still are performing together, and they have a new album to show for their work with the Quad-City rock stalwarts, The Blue Collar Band.

“We’ve been doing it for a while,” Van Acker said with a laugh.

With lead singer Carol Anne Chouteau and bass player Bob Maddelein, Rick’s brother, on bass, The Blue Collar Band is releasing its CD, “Let’s Get This Party Started!” with a performance Saturday night at Martini’s on the Rock in Rock Island.

“It’s nice to have something with our musical life documented,” Rick Maddelein said.

“It represents what we do,” Bob Maddelein added. “The real thrill, as far as I’m concerned, is performing the music. When people are having a good time when we’re doing it, that’s what makes it worthwhile.”

The CD includes four original songs, recorded in the studio, and a dozen cover songs, recorded at Martini’s on Feb. 10. The band never intended to record a live album, but a friend of Van Acker’s brought 16-channel recording equipment that patched into the soundboard at that show.

“It came out so well, (we thought), hey, let’s do something with this,” Rick Maddelein said. “They all came out pretty good. We’re really happy with it.”

The four original songs include three written by Rick Maddelein — “Today,” “Fallin’ Apart at the Seams” and the title song — and one by former band member Tony Hoeppner, “Picture in My Wallet.”

The live songs include covers of the Motels’ “Only the Lonely,” Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m the Only One,” Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart,” Chicago’s “Colour My World” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”

“We classify ourselves as classic rock and try to keep that in mind,” Van Acker said. “And whatever Carol Anne tells us she’s willing to sing, we go at it.”

Chouteau will take on songs that originally had either a male or female lead singer.

“It’s not just songs geared toward a female-type vocal,” Van Acker said. “Carol Anne pitches right in and does it.”

“Stairway,” which has turned into a Blue Collar Band staple, came about by chance when Rick Maddelein was tinkering on the opening chords and Chouteau volunteered the fact that she plays the flute.

“It always goes over really well with the crowd,” she said.

“People just go nuts over that one,” Rick Maddelein said. “People wait around to hear that song.”

Band members said it was worth the extra money to put it on the album. Rick Maddelein said licensing fees cost the band 9.1 cents per song, per copy, for tunes up to five minutes in length. “Stairway,” the only five-minute-plus song on the album, cost a bit more.

Martini’s, formerly known as The Veranda, is among the regular haunts for the Blue Collar Band along with the Greenbriar Pub in Moline and 11th Street Bar and Grill in the Village of East Davenport.

“It’s just a nice venue for us,” Van Acker said of Martini’s. “The crowds that go there are our age group, and it’s a good place to play.

“The people who run those clubs are nice people. They treat you good, they treat bands good. It’s a pleasure playing there, and the crowds are excellent.”

Chouteau is 47, and the guys in the band are in their mid- to late 50s. They see no end in sight for their weekend gigs.

“We’re still drawing a crowd, we’re still having fun. We love to rock, so we just do it,” Rick Maddelein said. “That’s our primary love of life.

“We’re in this to have fun, and that’s the primary thing,” Bob Maddelein said.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

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What: Blue Collar Band

When: 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday, Aug. 11

Where: Martini’s on the Rock, 4619 34th St., Rock Island

How much: Free

Information: (309) 732-1631

On the Web: bluecollarband.com

CD: “Let’s Get This Party Started!” is available at Borders, Davenport; and Co-Op Records, Davenport and Moline