Collective Soul

After entertaining thousands of fans at a free concert with Drivin’ N Cryin’ Saturday night in Centennial Olympic Park downtown, the members of Atlanta’s own Collective Soul unwound with family and friends at a private reception inside the W hotel’s Drinkshop.

Band members Ed and Dean Roland, Will Turpin and Joel Kosche had a lot to celebrate. For starters, the release of “Rabbit,” the unofficial title of their new album (technically, the album is self-titled but features a photo of a rabbit on the cover. Fans and iTunes have nicknamed it “Rabbit.”).

And much like The Beatles classic eponymous album fans call “The White Album,” references to the Fab Four don’t end with album titles.

Collective Soul front man Ed Roland and wife Michaeline were also celebrating the recent arrival of Lennon Roland, their new son. Saturday night’s party represented the first evening away from little Lennon for Michaeline.

“We’ve been texting and calling back and forth,” she told us. “It’s taking a little getting used to.”

Helping to ease her anxiety?

Her hubby’s presentation at the party of a “push present” (a relatively new trend where husbands give their wives a post-delivery gift of jewelry): matching gem-studded silver rings in the shape of Lennon’s zodiac sign Leo the lion, complete with birth stones.

Roland retreated to the quieter environs of the mens’ room to give us the details of his life these days.

On arguably the coolest rock star baby name ever, Roland told us: “That was actually Michaeline’s idea. She knows how much I love the Beatles.”

One option scratched off the list early on?

Ringo.

“We had a dog named Ringo growing up,” Roland recounted laughing. “We also considered Harrison but Lennon was just perfect.”

While there’s plenty of trademark rockers and pop songs on “Rabbit” like the insanely catchy first single, “Staring Down,” the album closes with “Hymn for My Father,” a tribute to the late Roland family patriarch, a veteran Stockbridge Baptist minister Ed and Dean lost four years ago.

“It was a loss felt by everyone in the band,” Roland explained. “We all know everyone else’s father in the band. We’re just all very close. The band allowed me to close the record with just me and a piano. “I grew up singing hymns and it’s our way of paying tribute to his spirit.”

Among the notable attendees at the party: Atlanta Falcon Brian Finneran and his former teammate Warrick Dunn, (who tells us his charitable foundation for single moms is suiting up for a big 2010 fund-raiser), B98.5 FM’s Vikki Locke and her hilarious husband Mike Hughes, Ted’s Montana Grill co-owner and Longhorn Steaks founder George McKerrow, Jr. and his wife Ginair, Q100’s Jeff and Jessica Dauler, along with a wobbly Jenn Hobby (who appeared to be spent from a long day of college football kickoffs and concerts) and her celeb shutterbug boyfriend Ben Rose, Buckhead salon owner/photographer Richie Arpino (who at one point introduced himself to a group of attendees seated at a table by lying across said furniture. A candle was quickly moved out of the way to accommodate the perennially wacky stylist) and his partner Metrofresh owner and actor Mitchell Anderson.