Night and Day - by Bruce Cole
Shepherd Express July 19, 2001

Thirty-six years after he started, Milwaukee guitarist Ar J. Stevens is still rockin’ with no end in sight. What a life! He plays 200 exciting shows a year in big venues from California to New York, Great Britain to Australia. He hangs backstage with road rockers like Brian Setzer and Joe Ely, with veterans like Frankie
Valli of the Four Seasons and Mike Love of the Beach Boys. He has met Princess Diana. Paul McCartney calls him by his first name.

For almost 20 years Ar J. has been the lead guitar player and musical director for legendary performer and ‘60s teen idol, Bobby Vee. The Bobby Vee show is an irresistible blend of showmanship, musical integrity, energy and fun mixed into the golden great tunes. This music has not only weathered the test of time, but
continues to earn friends and fans from around the globe.

Ar Kriegel, his given name, grew up on Milwaukee’s North Side in the late ‘50s on the corner of Ruby and West 38th. He played trombone in grade school and his dad taught him accordion and guitar. Ar’s first
band (in 1960) was the Ruby Knights, which became the Ricochettes a couple of years later inspired by the Ricochette Bar a local hangout. Stevens was a hard worker and a perfectionist who expected hard work from his fellow band members. After various personnel changes, they released a Beatles’ album cut, “I’ll Be Back,” as their first 45 rpm. The single lead to their becoming known as “Milwaukee’s Beatle Band.” They played Vox gear on loan and featured excellent harmony, fine musicianship and matching suits. The band played CYO dances, festivals, ballrooms and colleges. The band earned a solid fan base in the
Milwaukee and Chicago areas where they opened for the first wave of British bands like The Dave Clark Five, The Animals and Manfred Mann. Their second 45, “Come in My Love,” got regional airplay and sold more than 10,000 copies in the Milwaukee area alone. Like many bands of the era, members married or went off to school and the Ricochettes called it quits in 1967.

Stevens then earned an accounting degree from MATC before getting drafted in 1968. Then followed two years of Army before marriage and as accountant job at MSOE. His day job, coupled with six-nights-a-week playing with the Music Company and Rocket 88 for 13 hard years undoubtedly contributed to his eventual divorce.

Tired of the sideman role, he reformed the Ricochettes in 1982 and changed his name to Ar J. Stevens. With a new name, a new family and a new life, he rehearsed the band for a month before its first gig, the annual Clear Lake, Iowa Buddy Holly Anniversary Show. Bobby Vee headlined that show.

From his dressing room, Vee heard the Ricochettes that sub-zero February evening in 1982 and liked what he heard. Vee admits that by the ‘80s his own backup bands were often discouraging. Since his hits are chord heavy, the arrangements puzzled the typical weekend strummers he was often forced to tolerate. In
contrast, the best writers, producers and musicians of the 1960’s built songs like “Run To Him” and “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes” with care and precision. According to Vee: ”I was at the end of my rope with musicians who weren’t having fun, and really weren’t fond of playing the music.” Impressed with the emotional intensity of the Ricochettes and their enthusiastic leader, he decided to offer Stevens a job.

“I guess I was just born to sing harmony,” cracks Stevens when asked why he keeps playing. “A year before the Bob Vee offer happened, my wife and I had been talking about my future in the music business. She convinced me that there would be no harmony in our lives if I didn’t do what I wanted to do. And I can’t remember a time I didn’t want to play, sing, arrange and write. I need to be on stage; I need to look forward to that, or I’m miserable and impossible to live with.”

Stevens accepted the Bobby Vee job offer without hesitation. In 1983 he abandoned his accounting career and moved the family to Minnesota, close to the boss. He and his wife (Bobbie) never regretted the move.

It is a busy life! One week it’s a Caribbean cruise, then it’s off to England for their annual two months of shows. Work often includes exciting opportunities like an Australian tour and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s birthday party. Booking at least a year into the future, the universal appeal of the show takes them from Las Vegas lounges to Mid-western festivals and fairs to East Coast tours. Stevens never minds the
long, hard miles as long as they take him where he has always wanted to go…what a gig!

Bobby Vee’s band currently is made up Bobby’s two sons: Jeff on drums, Tom on stand up bass, and Jeff Olsen on keyboards. Ar J. Stevens is the group’s musical conductor and bandleader. Rock On, Ar!

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