'A dream come true:' Moline native Rick Berthod to open Blues Fest 2023

Rick Berthod is the opening act for Blues Fest 2023 hosted by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society Sept. 15-16. Tickets can be purchased online or the day of the events.

Rick Berthod's dreams of becoming a blues musician started in the most unusual place: church.

The Moline native will be back in the Quad-Cities Sept. 15 and 16, but is playing a different venue altogether. Berthod is the opening act of the 2023 Blues Fest hosted by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.

The festival will take place in LeClaire Park in downtown Davenport with gates opening at 3:30 p.m. on Friday the 15th and and at noon on Saturday the 16th. Tickets can be purchased online or the day of.

"It's a dream come true, really," he said. “I just hope I play well.”

Berthod was born in Moline and lived in the Quad-Cities until the age of 11.

"Then I moved to Cedar Rapids for a minute, then we moved to Houston. Then I came back (to the Quad-Cities) when I was 15," he said.

Growing up, music influenced him early on. His uncle, Tony Paskvan, introduced him to the guitar, but he fell in love with music at St. Anthony's in downtown Davenport.

In the early '70s, the church was the home parish for Father James Grubb. Locally, soon nationally, he was known as "the hippie priest" for his long hair and daisy-clad vestments. Twice a week Fr. Grubb held "hippie mass," where Berthod was first introduced to the world of rock and roll.

"He was like this hippie guy, but you could sit on the floor, you could sit anywhere, but the coolest thing about it was they had an an electric guitar, drums. They had a full rock band," he said. "They even had a midnight mass."

Although Berthod grew up listening to guitar music, he had never heard it like this. And he certainly had never heard it in a church.

"He was just a long haired priest, and it was a regular Catholic Church. I remember sitting by the altar on the floor during mass and listening to the band play Born Free, Joy to the World," he said, adding Crosby Stills and Nash was a crowd favorite, too. "It was so cool for someone 9 or 10 years old."

Soon after, his parents divorced and Berthod moved around, landing in Houston when he was about 15. While working as a paper boy for the Houston Chronicle, he saved up enough money to buy his first new guitar: a black Les Paul.

Houston in the '70s, he said, was a mecca for rock and roll music. The home he lived in was about a mile-and-a-half from the ranch where ZZ Top would rehearse. Eventually, he landed back in the Quad-Cities and his uncle Tony took him to his first concert, The Marshall Tucker Band. Two weeks later they saw the J. Geils Band.

"I had that going on before I really even got serious about guitar," he said.

Back at home, his uncle would play Fleetwood Mac albums from the Peter Green days. Berthod said he knew from his church-going days what blues music was all about, and it motivated him to start taking it seriously.

By the time turned 18 he moved to Galesburg to begin an apprenticeship. He soon found himself in a band called the Pine Street Pursuaders. From there on, he knew what his career path would be.

"That really taught me that it's OK to be a blues musician," he said.

Playing the festival has been a long time coming, he said. Berthod has been involved with the Mississippi Valley Blues Society for a number of years, but never played. This year, he gets to do one better: he's the opening act.

On Saturday, the festival will host Blueskool, an interactive workshop where listeners can learn the history of the blues, listen to music and learn to play along. Berthod's session begins at 4 p.m. with Bret Dale playing before him at 3 p.m. and David Berntson proceeding him at 5 p.m.

"I look forward to stuff like that because I like to preserve the music," he said.

Following the master class, Berthod will go to Bellevue to play at the Flatted Fifth Blues & BBQ at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Recently, he was nominated for an Independent Blues Award for best blues rock band. Voting can be done online until Sept. 15.

On that same day, he gets to open the festival in downtown Davenport. For more than 20 years he has been trying to make this dream his reality and finally, it will.

"When I called my dad and told him that I got the festival, I had tears in my eyes," he said. "To actually be playing the festival ... playing the big stage, is a dream come true without a doubt."

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

The shop is known for its custom flags.

The prison was temporarily converted to low-security this spring.

Fareway opened Wednesday in the former Slagle Foods location.

Lifted Energy will have its grand opening Saturday, Aug. 26.

Twenty-one apartments will take up the top three floors.