If a smoky bar with a grungy garage band or another night of Courtney Love’s antics on MTV have pushed you over the musical edge, an upcoming performance at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium promises to bring a breath of fresh air to the Ames music scene. Chanticleer, the only full-time classical vocal ensemble in America, is making an appearance this Saturday for a single 7:30 p.m. show.

The group of 12 men, made up of five countertenors, three tenors, two baritones and two basses, formed in San Francisco in 1978 as the result of one members’ interest in early music.

“Louis Botto [artistic director and founder] was studying music history and thought it would be nice to get together a choir to sing music similar to that which he was studying,” said Frank Albinder, Chanticleer’s associate conductor, tour manager, bass-baritone and all-around Renaissance man.

The group carries this tradition of early music through many aspects of their existence (they borrowed the name “Chanticleer” from the rooster from Canterbury Tales), including the all-male part of the ensemble. This ain’t sexism; rather, it’s hearkening back to how they did it in the old days.

“The reason it’s all men is that in the Renaissance, you couldn’t use both women and men in the same church service,” Albinder explained. “They had all women’s choirs, but they tended to be cloistered nuns, and they didn’t do much in the public. Originally, the hope was just to get closer to the origins of earlier music. So it didn’t start out to be a professional thing.”

But Chanticleer has turned into a major job full of hard work and chock-full schedules. They’ve built such an admiring following that some composers pen songs just for these 12 guys to perform. “We started out just singing early music, and some pieces have been written especially for us, either commissioned for us or because they like us,” Albinder said. “We do popular music too, mostly American, like jazz, barber-shop quartet, spirituals. People who come to see us have a lot to choose from.”

And while the group’s tour schedule takes them just about anywhere you can think of — we’re talking Japan, Korea, New York and Los Angeles, just to name a few — they have found, through extensive exploration, that people in both small towns and college towns get a big kick outta their show.

“At the very first concert, a woman friend of Louis’s worked for a booking agent: Columbia Artist Management International (CAMI),” Albinder explained. “They started community concerts, which took us into smaller towns that may not have the resources to bring big shows in. We sing in a lotta small towns.

“In a small town your concert is the main event, whereas in a large city, your show might get lost. The only problem is it’s hard to find food afterwards; everything closes early [in a small town].”

This manic touring eventually blossomed into a lot of time in the studio: Chanticleer has recorded 15 CDs, from Christmas hymns, to Mexican Baroque music, to Gregorian chant. Ten of these were released by their own label, Chanticleer Records, but the final five were recorded with the help of Teldec Classics International, a branch of Time/Warner. Albinder describes this happy fusion as a windfall more to the group’s fans. “[The company’s] been very, very helpful because the new records are available to a much wider audience,” he said.

For as many CDs as the ensemble has released, one would think that recording them was one big happy party. But Albinder has a different view on hours upon hours spent in the studio. “Personally, I hate recording,” he said. “Some of the guys like it, but I don’t. You have to sing things 100 times. When you do a concert, you have an audience and get an immediate response. But in a little cold studio, everything has to be perfect. It’s absolutely exhausting.”

Not that touring doesn’t take a lot outta these guys, though. Singing a capella, with absolutely no instrumental backup whatsoever, has a tendency of leaving performers naked on stage (but not literally). “We generally don’t sing with instruments,” Albinder said. “It’s very exposed; we can hear messing up quite clearly, though we hope [the audience] doesn’t. It’s not like it’s a large choir; if someone messes up, you can’t cover it up.

“The voice is sometimes harder to control than most instruments,” Albinder added. “It changes a little bit everyday. If you’re tired, or the weather’s cold or you drank too much, it all affects singing.”

But the men from Chanticleer somehow overcome all of the elements that make their job challenging and manage to deliver performances that even the MTV generation digs. “A lotta people are rediscovering the pleasure of recital singing,” Albinder said. “And a lotta students sing. Plus, pop artists like Boyz II Men have made a name for themselves as mainly an a capella group. People appreciate the work it takes.”

Chanticleer will perform at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $11, $16 and $21, but students are so very lucky! They receive half-off the price with an ID. Tickets are available at the Iowa State Center Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets.