A nationally-recognized ensemble comes to Rockford for a performance this weekend. It’s also one of the most unique.
It’s Friday night at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, and the St. Luke’s Bottle Band is rehearsing for its upcoming show at Rockford’s First Lutheran Church.
It’s just one of many the band will give this year, adding to the hundreds the band has given over the past 35 years across the country, on TV and radio.
Director and founder Paul Phillips says he had no idea it would get this big. He had seen a small bottle band and thought it might be fun to create one for a church fundraiser.
“I collaborated with the organist at the time, because I didn’t know much about music, in terms of arranging things. We got together a simple group of about twelve people, and did part of a variety show at the church. It was very successful. Pretty soon, we decide we could do a whole half-hour show on our own. ”
Then bottles that were struck with mallets – Phillips calls those bottle-o-phones – were added, then costumes, other instruments, and singers. Performances also grew, with appearances on TV with David Letterman and on America’s Got Talent, in addition to conventions and other concerts.
Over the years, the band also became an integral part of the church. Anne Krentz is director of music ministries at St. Luke’s.
“When I arrived, I was told that being part of the Bottle Band was part of my job, and it’s been a hilarious part of my job.”
Krentz says, 14 years later, that’s still true. Krentz plays the bottle-ophone and occasionally the flute with the band. She says her musical training helps sometimes, but many people in the band have little or none. What makes it work, she says, are Phillips’ unique talents.
“Paul arranges all the music that the Bottle Band plays, and he is just brilliantly creative at that. He does a spectacular job of taking what we have, and thinking outside of the box, and figuring out what else can we do that would be fun.”
Those arrangements included everything from Bach to Broadway to the blues. And that, Phillips deadpans, takes the right equipment.
“We say that the official bottle is the Leinenkugel’s because it gives us the best tone quality out of all of the hundreds of brands that we’ve sampled. The lower notes are played on the larger Sangria bottles. For those that are hitting the bottle, we have everything from a six-ounce ale bottle to a one gallon J & B bottle.”
Brian Scerba has been with the Band for about six years, all while juggling the demands of work and family. So what keeps him in the group?
“It’s just one of those whimsical, good-natured, humorous, fun organizations to participate in. We take classical music and play with it and tweak it in a humorous way. Anybody can enjoy the show between the ages of 8 to 80. So, it’s just been a pleasure to be a part of.”
Phillips says that enthusiasm by its members has kept the band remarkably stable.
“We have a number of people who’ve been in it from the start, and we’ve had people whose children are in the Bottle Band.”
Kyle Cartwright is one of those original members. As the band has grown, so has her role in it.
“I became like, the lead kazooist and comedian. I sing the parodies that Paul writes and I go out into the audience and goof around.”
It’s all great fun, Cartwright says. She loves working with Phillips and the others in the band, and enjoys the chance to let loose on stage. But joking aside, she’s really proud of the $300,000 the band has been able to raise over the past 35 years.
“Nobody gets paid for anything. So the money that we make, all is given away. And not everything to St. Luke’s. When the Towers came down, we gave money. When Katrina hit, we gave money. So it allows us to be way more philanthropic than we ever could be individually on our own.”
Phillips and the others agree. And as long as doing good can be this much fun, they say, the band will continue.
The Band plays at First Lutheran Church in Rockford on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 3 P. M.
The band also has a number of performances on YouTube.
