All Sweat Productions is bringing an essence of the 70s to the River Music Experience this New Years’ Eve. The compilation of 25 Quad-City musicians is performing Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours in its entirety to ring in 2022.
“The New Year is always a big party for us at the Redstone Room,” Al Sweet, director of All Sweat Productions, said. “We want to have a different kind of party. We have DJ Buddha opening, who makes a lot of old-school grooves with house music, then we’ll do two sets, the first including big hits from Fleetwood Mac, and the second set will be the entire Rumours catalog. Then we have a big balloon drop, champaign, party favors, everything for everyone to enjoy the night and bring in 2022.”
All Sweat Productions is a live music project designed to gather the most talented musicians in the greater Quad-City area to perform and pay tribute to the best rock n’ roll moments in history. The production group saw great success with events in the pre-COVID landscape and recently started to produce shows again. This summer’s tribute to Abbey Road brought over 1,000 people to Rock Island’s Schwiebert Park, while the Island Del Soul night this fall saw a more intimate and diverse crowd.
The TikTok virality of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams in 2020 brought on a rush of nostalgia for fans and exposed Gen Z and younger millennials to the bands’ epic discography.
“We wanted to do it about two years ago, right before COVID,” Sweet said. “We had it planned out and had to scrap it. We wanted to showcase our female artists, and Rumours is a great fit. The album is wonderfully produced, with tons of overdubbed guitars and vocals, choir sounding, and many epic tunes. We have a great lineup of ladies for this show.”
This will be the final show of 2021, but All Sweat Productions is already looking ahead to 2022. The cast of musicians for the new year’s production includes Frankie Fontagne, Jacob Palmer, Logan McDaniel, Andrew Ross, Kelsey Linnon, Chris Avey, Randy Leasman, Brian West, Jeni Grows, Zack Johnson, Forrest Heusinkveld, Sean Ryan, Jordan VanOpdorp, Ben Schwind, Tyson Danner, Chrissy Boyer, Al Sweet, Jack Hill, Erin Moore, John Born, Angie Fisher, Ben Kays, Justin Behn, Logan “Frog” Farber and Justin “Fish” Fisher.
“We are now underneath the River Music Experience umbrella, so that means our budgets will be larger, shows will be bigger and better,” Sweet said. “We plan on doing more shows in Schwiebert Riverfront Park, going all over the Quad Cities to show people what All Sweat and the River Music Experience is all about. Bringing communities together, growing the attendance, and ensuring everyone gets that good feeling that live music brings.”
Find more information on showtimes and tickets for the All Sweat Series: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours at the River Music Experience at rivermusicexperience.org.
Callahan Herrig was born, raised, and currently inhabits the Quad Cities. He is a writer and an author of Roswell: A Literary Collection. He also enjoys a glass of bourbon, old records, and waiting for the wave to finally break. You can see more of Callahan’s work on IG @CallahanCreative