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Group Members: Al Anderson, Terry Adams, Terry Adams And Marshall Allen
Often called "the world's greatest bar band," NRBQ are that rare group that's eclectic, stylistically innovative, and creatively ambitious while also sounding thoroughly unpretentious and accessible. At its best, NRBQ's music casually mixes up barrelhouse R&B, British Invasion pop, fourth-gear rockabilly, exploratory free jazz, and dozens of other flavors while giving it all a stomp-down rhythm that makes fans want to dance and expressing a sense of joy and easy good humor that comes straight from the heart. Over the course of a career that's lasted more than 40 years, the band has barely flirted with mainstream success, but has still earned a sizable, passionate cult of fans that includes Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Bonnie Raitt, Ira Kaplan, John Sebastian, and Dave Edmunds.
NRBQ were formed in 1967 by pianist Terry Adams and guitarist Steve Ferguson, a pair of musicians from Louisville, Kentucky, and Joey Spampinato, a bassist who originally hailed from the Bronx. Adams and Ferguson were members of a group called the Mersey-Beats USA, who as the name suggests specialized in British Invasion covers, and they had relocated to Miami, Florida in search of steady gigs. In Miami, they met Spampinato (then using the stage name Jody St. Nicholas) and vocalist Frank Gadler, who were members of an R&B show band called the Seven of Us. Adams and Ferguson soon joined the Seven of Us, and after the addition of drummer Tom Staley, the revamped lineup changed its name to NRBQ (short for the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet), though the band was still a seven-piece when sax player Keith Spring and Donn Adams on trombone (Terry's brother), soon to be known as the Whole Wheat Horns, sat in. NRBQ left Florida and made their way to New Jersey, where they began playing New York City on a regular basis. The band landed a recording contract with Columbia Records, and in 1969 NRBQ released their self-titled debut; displaying a stylistic range that would become the band's hallmark, the first two tunes found them covering Eddie Cochran and Sun Ra, with numbers by Carla Bley, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and Bruce Channel popping up elsewhere alongside a handful of group originals. The album was well reviewed but sales were spotty, and for their second LP Columbia hoped to trade on a revival of interest in first-era rock & roll by pairing the band in the studio with rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins. Boppin' the Blues was an interesting experiment that didn't fare much better than NRBQ's debut, and they parted ways with Columbia.
In 1971, NRBQ landed a new record deal with Kama Sutra Records, and were breaking in a new guitarist; Steve Ferguson left the band, and Al Anderson, a former member of Connecticut white soul heroes the Wildweeds, took over on lead guitar for 1972's Scraps. Later the same year, Frank Gadler left the lineup, and from that point on Adams, Anderson, and Spampinato traded off on lead vocals. Released in 1973, Workshop featured a minor hit single in the topical novelty rocker "Get That Gasoline Blues," but it was also the band's last album for Kama Sutra due to disappointing sales. By the time they released another album, 1977's All Hopped Up, NRBQ had relocated to the Northeast, they were recording for their own Red Rooster label, and new drummer Tom Ardolino (a fan who impulsively hopped up on stage and sat in on the traps during an encore at a gig) had signed on, solidifying a lineup that would remain stable until 1994. One number from All Hopped Up, "Riding in My Car," attracted enough regional notice that Mercury signed the band and tacked the tune onto its next album, the marvelous NRBQ at Yankee Stadium (they didn't play there; they just sat in the stands). The Mercury signing proved to be a one-off, and Red Rooster struck up a distribution deal with the respected roots music label Rounder Records; outside of Grooves in Orbit, released by Bearsville Records in 1983 (shortly before they went out of business), Red Rooster/Rounder would be their home for the better part of 20 years as they released a steady stream of independent albums and played seemingly every club in the United States at one time or another, building a well-deserved reputation as a stellar and wildly unpredictable live act.
In 1989, NRBQ took one last chance with the major labels, signing with Virgin for the album Wild Weekend. The album fared better commercially than most of their LPs, but it was still well short of a hit, and their next disc was an archival live release for Rykodisc, 1992's Honest Dollar. In 1994, Rhino Records (who had previously compiled an excellent NRBQ anthology, Peek-A-Boo) released Message for the Mess Age, which proved to be Al Anderson's last album with NRBQ. Anderson was tired of NRBQ's busy touring schedule and left the group to work as a contract songwriter in Nashville, penning hits for Carlene Carter, Trisha Yearwood, the Mavericks, and LeAnn Rimes, among many others. (Anderson told a reporter he left NRBQ on good terms, adding "It was a great band before, and will be a great band after.") Johnny Spampinato, Joey's brother and a longtime member of the Incredible Casuals, took over as NRBQ's guitarist, and the band continued to record and tour at a steady pace. They also began popping up regularly on the popular television series The Simpsons; one of the show's top writers, Mike Scully, was a major fan, and he recruited them to record several numbers for the show, as well as appearing on the show in both animated and live-action form (they even wrote a tune specifically for The Simpsons, "Mayonnaise and Marmalade"). The band formed a new label, Edisun Records, to release 2002's Atsa My Band and 2004's Dummy, and in 2004, NRBQ staged a pair of 35th anniversary concerts in Northampton, Massachusetts, which featured appearances by every current and former member of the group.
Not long after the anniversary concerts, NRBQ quietly broke up, with Adams forming a new group, the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet, and releasing a number of albums through his own label, Clang Records; he also recorded and toured with Steve Ferguson, and played Scandinavia with Tom Staley's band the Hot Shots. Founding member Ferguson died of cancer at his home in Louisville on October 7, 2009 at the age of 60. Adams also struggled with health problems; he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, though in 2011 he announced he was free from the illness. Joey and Johnny, meanwhile, hit the road as the Spampinato Brothers and released a fine album, 2010's Pie in the Sky. In the spring of 2011, Adams announced that the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet had been renamed NRBQ, and they released an album under their new moniker, Keep This Love Goin', in May of that year.
from Wikipedia:
NRBQ is an American rock band founded in 1967. It is known for its live performances, containing a high degree of spontaneity and levity, and blending rock, pop, jazz, blues and Tin Pan Alley styles. Its best known line-up is the 1974–1994 quartet of pianist Terry Adams, bassist Joey Spampinato, guitarist Al Anderson, and drummer Tom Ardolino. 2004 saw the beginning of a several-year long hiatus interrupted only by a few reunion performances, while band members pursued other projects. In 2011, the band returned with keyboardist Adams as the only member from any previous lineup.
The abbreviation "NRBQ" stands for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet (originally Quintet). The band's music, a rollicking blend of everything from stomping rockabilly to Beatles-influenced pop to Thelonious Monk-inspired jazz, has attracted fans as diverse as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards and Penn and Teller. NRBQ songs have inspired cover versions by Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, and Dave Edmunds, among many others. In addition, the group served as the unofficial "house band" for The Simpsons for the season 10-12 period in which NRBQ fan Mike Scully was head writer and executive producer. NRBQ allowed several of their songs to be used on The Simpsons, including "Mayonnaise and Marmalade", written specifically for the show. The band also appeared in animated form as well as on camera during the end credits to perform the show's theme song during the episode "Take My Wife, Sleaze". The band also recorded a song entitled "Birdman" for an episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast entitled "Pilot". The group appeared in feature films, including Day of the Dead, Shakes the Clown, and 28 Days.
NRBQ's devoted following was stoked by years of legendary live shows. The band never works with a set list, so fans never knew what songs to expect. In addition to its own compositions, the band performs a broad range of cover material, and has even worked no-refusal audience requests into its act.
However, all of this admiration from peers and fans has never resulted in chart-topping success. The band made only one appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in its nearly 40-year recording career ("Get That Gasoline Blues" reached #70 in 1974.) More than once, NRBQ garnered a major-label record deal, only to be dropped after one or two albums due to poor sales. Over the years, the group played sets while wearing pajamas, hired professional wrestler "Captain" Lou Albano as its manager (for whom they penned a song in tribute), and exploded Cabbage Patch Dolls on stage.
History
NRBQ formed in 1967 in Miami, Florida, coming together from the remnants of several other bands. The original members, close friends in high school, were keyboardist Terry Adams and guitarist Steve Ferguson. "Ferguson first hooked up with pianist Terry Adams at Pleasure Ridge Park high school in Louisville, Kentucky, where the pair formed a group called the Merseybeats (no relation to the Liverpool group who did “I Stand Accused”). When that group broke up, Ferguson and Adams moved to Miami, where they met the remnants of a band called the Seven of Us, singer Frank Gadler, drummer Tom Staley and bassist Joey Spampinato(originally known by the stage name of Jody St. Nicholas), and formed NRBQ in 1967. Ferguson played on the group’s self-titled debut and its collaboration with Carl Perkins, Boppin’ the Blues. He left the group in 1970, replaced by Big Al Anderson. The group relocated to the northeastern U.S., living for a while in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and gaining attention in local clubs and performing at the Fillmore East. NRBQ was signed to Columbia Records in 1969, and released its self-titled debut album the same year. The record featured cover versions of everyone from Eddie Cochran to Sun Ra, along with a number of similarly wide-ranging original songs. The following year, the group collaborated with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins on an album titled Boppin' The Blues."
However, before NRBQ could finish its third album, Columbia dropped the group. Over the next three years, the band experienced personnel shifts, with the departure of Ferguson (replaced for one year by Ken Sheehan), Gadler, and Staley, and the arrival of two new members: guitarist/singer Al Anderson formerly of The Wildweeds, known for the Connecticut and Massachusetts regional hit No Good To Cry, and drummer Tom Ardolino. The Adams/Spampinato/Anderson/Ardolino quartet stayed together longer than any other incarnation of the band (20 years, from 1974 until 1994), and was often augmented by the Whole Wheat Horns. In 1994 Anderson departed the group to become an award-winning Nashville songwriter for many country-western acts. He was replaced in NRBQ by Joey Spampinato's younger brother, Johnny Spampinato, who was (and still is) a member of power-pop band The Incredible Casuals.
On April 30 and May 1 of 2004, the group celebrated its 35th anniversary with concerts at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts. The shows featured every former and current member of the band, as Ferguson, Gadler, Staley, Sheehan and Anderson came back for a NRBQ reunion.
Hiatus and return
Near the end of 2004, NRBQ went on hiatus. Adams had developed stage 4 throat cancer. During this time, Ardolino and the Spampinato brothers started playing shows as a trio, under the name Baby Macaroni. After a number of months, Adams would recover well enough to tour with former drummer Staley and Japanese rockabilly group the Hot Shots.
In June 2006, Adams and Ferguson released the album Louisville Sluggers (with Ardolino on drums, Pete Toigo on bass and other supporting musicians), and this album's lineup performed some live shows in the U.S. and Japan as "The Terry Adams - Steve Ferguson Quartet" and "Rock & Roll Summit Meeting."
Also in September 2006 came the release of a SpongeBob SquarePants album, The Best Day Ever, which included backing music by all four NRBQ members, as well as Al Anderson. The album, a collection of '60s-influenced pop/rock produced by Andy Paley, and co-written by Paley and the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, also included such musical luminaries as Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, James Burton, Flaco Jiménez and Philadelphia DJ Jerry "The Geator" Blavat.
In November 2007, Terry Adams formed The Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet with Scott Ligon on guitar and vocals, Pete Donnelly (of The Figgs) on bass and Conrad Choucroun on drums.
In March 2011, Terry Adams posted an open letter to fans announcing that with the release of the upcoming album Keep This Love Goin', this lineup would take on the NRBQ name. He also explained that while he did have tendonitis, the real reason for the hiatus was his treatment for cancer.
Reunion shows
On April 27 and 28th of 2007, NRBQ gave a pair of "38th Anniversary" performances in Northampton, Massachusetts, the first public NRBQ shows since 2004. Both Al Anderson and Johnny Spampinato appeared in the lineup, along with "Whole Wheat Horns" Donn Adams and Jim Bob Hoke, and unannounced guest appearances by John Sebastian, original NRBQ drummer Tom Staley and the band's former road manager Klem Klimek on saxophone.
Steve Ferguson died of cancer on October 7, 2009.
Tom Ardolino passed away on January 6, 2012, following a long illness.
