RAPCO BAND: SELLING THE BLUES

JACKSON -- Many companies sponsor their own softball team. Rapco, one of the world's largest manufacturers of cable and custom sound equipment for the music industry, has its own band.

"Who'd ever believe you could do this at your job," drummer Bill Bolton said after the Rapco Band played a hard-earned set of blues last week for appreciative fellow employees in the company lunchroom.

The occasion was a preview of the music the band will perform Saturday at Printer's Alley, one of the must-see spots for visitors to Nashville. They will play at the Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar.

During the day, they also will be working at the National Association of Music Merchants semi-annual convention in Nashville this weekend.

The idea of forming a company band was the brainchild of Dale Williams, who shares the company's CEO duties with Linda Gast. He views the band as a marketing tool that helps translate the company's expertise to customers.

"To express to them, We do know the stuff. We know what you need," Williams said.

The fact that the 10-member Rapco Band lineup is almost a who's who of Cape Girardeau area musical talent is no accident. "We went looking for them," Williams said.

He thinks the band also helps the members do a better job. "It keeps them in touch with the music industry," he said.

Rapco, which has about 140 employees and gross annual sales of $14 million, sells custom equipment to a number of companies that provide sound systems for national tours. Jonny Lang, the new teen-age blues virtuoso, is among the artists who endorse Rapco's equipment.

For the most part, the band members are guys who are working regular hours and staying home only relatively recently.

"Most of us spent a lot of years on the road," says guitarist-vocalist-sales rep Bruce Zimmerman. "Now we have families and children and don't want to stay on the road."

Among local musicians, the words, "Hey, if anything comes open at Rapco..." are frequently heard, Zimmerman says.

Billy Keys, keyboardist and vocalist for the popular Cape Girardeau alternative band Papa Aborigine, was recently hired as a sales rep, just in time to play trumpet and sing "Steamroller Blues" in Nashville. His father, TUFA leader-guitarist Eddie Keys, has worked at Rapco for six years. He is manager of the Custom/Pro Department and plays valve trombone in the Rapco Band.

You know it's a good band when those two are playing horns instead of their principal instruments.

Marketing Director Brad Graham, employed at Rapco for 11 years, began playing bass in local bands at age 15. Graham performed with a variety of touring and local bands, most notably the popular Fletcher band.

His rhythm section cohorts are Bolton, a sales rep who played with everyone locally from Rock Bottom to the Little Ole Opry House Band, and Danny Tetley, another sales rep most recently employed by the Christian rock group Fade 2 White.

Zimmerman's Bruce Zimmerman & the Shysters are stalwarts of the local music scene. Zimmerman has played in a working band since age 9 and was a member of Delta recording artists The Next of Kin in the early 1970s. His musical resume is lengthy.

Trading guitar and vocal licks with Zimmerman is Doug Rees, the company's export sales representative. Reese played with variety bands for a long time, including The Last Broadcast, house band at the Holiday in the early 1980s. He has performed with Zimmerman's band and sits in with Carbondale blues singer Jim Skinner.

Keyboardist Roger Blankenship, another sales rep, toured with former America member Dan Peek, has played at the Grand Ole Opry and now plays for Fade 2 White.

Saxophonist Scott Slinkard, another member of Fade 2 White, is a custom engineer and product specialist for the company. He formerly played locally with Bad Influence and Human Zoo.

Sales rep Kerry Kamp, who plays acoustic guitar and sings, has the least professional experience but has been playing guitar for 20 years.

Almost all of them started playing music because they were introduced to it in school. The promotion of music education in the schools is one of NAMM's priorities, Graham says. "They sink a lot of money into elementary and secondary education."

For Zimmerman, the musicians-turned-sales reps in the Rapco Band illustrate the value of music education.

"You can do this forever," he says.