NRBQ - They're Nice People They Are (by Robin Platts)
From the publication DISCoveries


'Eclectic American band playing nearly everything.'
- The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music on NRBQ.
Almost 30 years after their first album, NRBQ are still gigging and making records with as much enthusiasm as ever. They've never really experienced mainstream commercial success and that might just be the key to their longevity. Nobody expects them to compete with Hootie And The Blowfish or Prodigy or whoever, so they just keep on doing their own thing. And those who know them keep on buying the records and going to the shows and having a great time. Joey Spampinato (bass and vocals), Terry Adams (keyboards and vocals), Tom Ardolino (drums) and Johnny Spampinato (guitar and vocals) are quite possibly the finest rock and roll band in America and, if you've never heard them, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

The NRBQ story begins, for all intents and purposes, in 1966. At that time, Joey Spampinato and singer Frank Gadler were living in New York City, performing in a group called The Seven Of Us. The Seven Of Us had already recorded two singles, 'How Could You' and 'Jamboree,' both released on the Red Bird label. At that time, it should be noted, Joey was going by the name Jody St. Nicholas - he would not revert to his real name until the>early '70s. Meanwhile, in Louisville, Kentucky, Terry Adams and guitarist Steve Ferguson were playing together in two different groups. 'Steve had a band that was working,' recalls Terry, in reference to the Merseybeats USA, a pseudo-British Invasion outfit who cut two singles for the Top Dog label. (Terry only appeared on the second 45, 'Does She Or Doesn't She.') 'And then I had sort of a rehearsal band,'Adams continues, 'I worked in his band, but then I had a band that only played at my house. That's where the stuff was happening. He started coming over and we were developing.' The latter group - known as the Stardusters - also featured Keith Spring on sax and Terry's brother Donn on trombone (both horn players would later play with NRBQ, billed as the Whole Wheat Horns). Adams and Ferguson soon relocated to Miami, where they met and the group soon adopted the name New Rhythm And Blues Quintet, or NRBQ for short. 'Joey's band were professionals,' recalls Terry with a chuckle. 'My band, we were strictly... musicians. So, I think we each needed a little bit of each other to make things work.'

Having won over many an audience in Miami, NRBQ moved to New Jersey in 1968, so as to have easy access to the New York City scene. Slim Harpo, who had seen the group play in Florida, helped them secure a gig at a hip Manhattan club called The Scene. That performance introduced NRBQ to a number of influential music biz types, including Columbia Records president Clive Davis, who was so impressed that he signed them shortly thereafter. In December '68, the band recorded their self-titled debut LP at the Record Plant. That session was a spontaneous affair, with plenty of energy and few of the tracks needing more than one take to capture. Amidst the psychedelia of 1968-69, NRBQ stood out in part because of their more 'rootsy' sound, their influences including early rockers such as Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins. 'You could call it 'rootsy,'' counters Terry Adams, 'but we were doing 'Rocket #9' by Sun Ra in 1968. So we were playing futuristic rock and roll. People might remember us playing '50s rock and roll, or Eddie Cochran, or whatever - which was true. But we were also playing avant-garde rock and roll. And not just 'Rocket #9,' but in many ways. And people loved it.' In some ways, though, NRBQ's eclectic sound has always been a factor in their lack of commercial success. Rock and roll, jazz, country, rockabilly and other scattered influences were filtered through the group's own personality. NRBQ was impossible to pigeonhole, and CBS was the first of several labels who couldn't figure out how to market them.

Likewise, the band's inherent lack of pretension was sometimes at odds with the psychedelic conventions of the era. The most famous example came when the group played at Bill Graham's Fillmore East. The operators of the venue followed their usual practice and attempted to enhance NRBQ's performance with a trippy light show. 'We asked them to turn that light show off of us,' recalls Adams, 'because it was insensitive to our music. And they were insulted by that, probably. So they kept it going. And so we stopped playing midway through and just started watching the films, too. (laughs) I think it was probably one of the finest moments, or strangest moments, at the Fillmore East.'

In the summer of 1969 came a new single, a new recording of Eddie Cochran's 'C'mon Everybody,' an earlier version of which had appeared on their debut album. That August, the band was back in the studio cutting a batch of new tracks, which they probably envisioned as the core of their second album: 'Flat Foot Flewzy,' 'Have You Heard,' 'Down In My Heart,' 'Tina,' 'Time And Place' and Carl Perkins' 'Sure To Fall.' The latter track may well have been what inspired someone at CBS to suggest a collaboration with Perkins, hoping that the combined talents of the two acts would give their respective careers a boost.

Terry Adams recalls, 'We were just asked if we wanted to do it and we thought, why not?' The band's October '69 sessions with Perkins produced some fine music, especially the Ferguson-Perkins duet 'Step Aside,' but the subsequent LP Boppin' The Blues was not quite the double act it seemed to be. Six of the record's 13 tracks were by NRBQ alone, while one was a Perkins solo effort. 'Sure To Fall' and 'Flat Foot Flewzy' were retained from the August sessions and the Q did some more tracks on their own in October. Boppin' The Blues is a very enjoyable album, but was probably not quite what the band had hoped their second album would be. 'We were saving what we thought was our best stuff for our second album on (CBS),' explains Terry, 'but, as it turned out, we never did that record.'

Although they didn't finish another album for CBS, NRBQ did record new material for the label. A November 6, 1969 session produced several very promising tracks: an early version of Terry's 'Tragic Magic,' 'Open All The Windows' and the Ferguson instrumental 'Dogwood Winter.' The band recorded sporadically during 1970, even though their relationship with CBS was as good as over. They cut a version of 'You Got Me Goin'' in April and recorded the Ferguson/Adams composition 'Ain't It All Right' in July. The former remained unissued until Columbia/Legacy's 1993 retrospective Stay With We (a fine introduction to the Q's early years), while the latter would show up on the Scraps LP two years later. According to Terry Adams, much of the best material from this period 'didn't get recorded at all. Steve's best material was never recorded. But it's recorded in our minds, you know? I still know it and, someday, it'll be there.'

Listening to tracks like 'Open All The Windows' and 'Dogwood Winter,' and hearing Terry Adams talk about Steve Ferguson's unrecorded material, one can only imagine what the next album by the original NRBQ would have sounded like. Unfortunately, the world never got the chance to find out. In 1970, not long after the release of Boppin' The Blues, Steve Ferguson left NRBQ and was replaced (temporarily) by Kenny Sheehan. Ferguson's departure was a significant loss, not only of a brilliant guitarist, but of a fine singer and songwriter. Looking back on the original NRBQ, Terry Adams says, 'That other band was a good band. I can tell you this: whoever did see it and witnessed it - they tell you there's never been anything like it, before or since.'

In November 1971, the band recruited a more permanent replacement for Steve Ferguson: Al Anderson, who was at that time playing guitar with a Connecticut country-rock group called the Wildweeds. Chandler Travis and Steve Shook (of Travis Shook And The Club Wow and, later, the Incredible Casuals) suggested Anderson as a replacement. 'So, on their word, we went to see him,' Terry explains. 'We hadn't actually heard of the Wildweeds.' Like Ferguson, Al Anderson was a very able singer and songwriter. His talent in the latter department would prove one of NRBQ's greatest strengths in the years to follow.

Just two weeks after Anderson joined, NRBQ started work on a new LP, their first for the Kama Sutra label. Due to the timing of Al's arrival, Kenny Sheehan stuck around to play rhythm guitar on three tracks. Also worth noting is the fact that Anderson is featured on Scraps only as a guitar player - he didn't join in time to contribute to the record as a vocalist or songwriter. Eddie Kramer produced the album, recorded on a mobile unit at the band's farmhouse in a remote area of upstate New York. Inspired by their rural setting and their new guitarist, the band recorded more material than they could fit on the album. Scraps was released in 1972, featuring Q classics such as 'Howard Johnson's Got His Ho-Jo Workin'' and 'Magnet.' Joey's gift for writing and singing melodic pop tunes was showcased on the lovely 'Only You.' In contrast, the wacky side of NRBQ was increasingly evident, most notably on 'Who Put The Garlic In The Glue?' (Scraps was remastered and reissued on LP by Red Rooster/Rounder in 1982.)

Lineup shuffles continued during '72-'73: Frank Gadler left the band and - given the vocal abilities of Spampinato, Adams and now Anderson, - there wasn't really any need to replace him. Still, Gadler's energetic vocals were a key ingredient in the early NRBQ sound. 'Frankie was way ahead of his time as a lead singer,' says Terry. 'He is still a singer, when he wants to be. He'll sing with us, probably, once a year or so, he'll show up somewhere. He was a really good lead singer.' Meanwhile Steve Ferguson returned, playing for a few months alongside Al Anderson. (The only released evidence of the short-lived two-guitar lineup was the subsequent 'Sourpuss' 45.)

Some leftovers from the Scraps sessions appeared on NRBQ's second Kama Sutra LP, Workshop, along with new tracks cut in late '72. Released in 1973, the album featured some of the group's strongest material to date: 'Miss Moses,' 'RC Cola And A Moon Pie,' 'Mona,' 'Deaf, Dumb And Blind' and the single 'Get Those Gasoline Blues,' which gave the group a #70 hit the following year. (In the late '70s, Scraps and Workshop were combined for a two-record set released by the Annuit Coeptis label.) Workshop was followed in 1974 by the non-album single 'Sourpuss' / 'Rumors,' which appeared on the Select-O-Hit label and has since become one of the band's most collectible releases.

Four years previously, while touring in support of Boppin' The Blues, NRBQ had played in Springfield, Massachusetts, to an audience which included Tom Ardolino. 'I went and saw them live, without hearing the record,' Tom recalls. 'They played at an old movie house, where they'd have bands every Friday. I thought that they were really something, so I got the album. And it had an address on the back, so I wrote a letter. From there, Terry and I started sending tapes of records back and forth - old 45s, Nervous Norvis, rhythm and blues or country records. This was reel to reel - this was before cassettes were really popular. We got to be friends like that. Then I'd go and meet him backstage at their shows and they'd invite me up to the house in New York.'

'We'd send each other versions of 'Holiday For Strings,' the David Rose song,' recalls Terry. 'He had a couple of versions he'd send out, then I'd send him a couple of versions that he didn't know. Tom was a big Lincoln Chase fan. So he'd send me some Lincoln Chase and then I'dsend him Ace Cannon. But I remember 'Holiday For Strings' getting bounced back and forth a few times. And I thought, anybody that's gonna send me 'Holiday For Strings' has gotta be alright.'

Adams knew that Ardolino drummed, but had never heard him play. 'I just played in my basement,' Tom explains. 'I never was in a band.' That is, until an ill Tom Staley failed to show up for an encore one night. Knowing that Ardolino was in the audience, the ever-spontaneous Adams invited him up on stage. 'I was afraid to,' Tom confesses, 'but they said 'Come on,' so I did it. And at the end of the two songs, Al turned around and he hadn't realized that it was a different drummer!'

When Tom Staley decided to leave the band and move back to Florida, Ardolino was offered the job. 'Tom was a natural for our band,' says Terry, 'because he was spiritually right, even though he had never played drums in any other situation, not in school or in any amateur way. When our first drummer left, I knew that he was right for the band. I feel sorry for all the other bands in the world, because they don't have Tom. There's good drummers and there's great drummers and, in this pop music world, there really isn't anyone better than him.'

'The very first session I did with the band was at Electric Lady Studios,' recalls Tom, 'but they lost the tape. We did, like, four songs and I don't know what happened to them. We did 'No Good To Cry' and 'When She Smiles' and something else I can't remember.' (Prior to the Electric Lady sessions, Tom had played, alongside other NRBQ personnel, on Chandler Travis And Steve Shook's The Essential Travis Shook And The Club Wow album.)

The first NRBQ release to feature Tom's drumming was the 1975 single 'Froggie Went A-Courtin'' / 'Bless Your Beautiful Hide.' The 45 was recorded for the tiny Button label and only a handful of copies of were pressed. Recalls Terry, 'That guy sort of folded the same day he started - it was one of those things.' The 'Froggie' sessions also spawned a few more recordings that never saw the light of day. 'I think we have some of the tapes,' says Terry, 'some rough mixes or something. We did a few numbers there. We recorded a lot that year, but almost all of it vanished for some reason or another.'

The Q's first album to feature Tom Ardolino was All Hopped Up, released in late 1977. Recorded sporadically over the previous two years, the album was released on the band's newly formed Red Rooster label. Preceding the LP was the single 'Ridin' In My Car,' a classic Al Anderson tune and a regional hit in the summer of '77. It was perhaps the success of that 45 that attracted the attention of Mercury Records, who signed the band that same year. Their first and only album for the label was the At Yankee Stadium LP, recorded in late 1977 and released the following year. Despite their return to a major label, the band remained resolutely themselves on the album. 'There's no commercial pressure there,' says Terry. 'That's us. On the At Yankee Stadium album, we're truly ourselves.'

The band's relationship with Mercury proved short-lived and, by the summer of 1978, they were back recording for Red Rooster, now distributed by Rounder Records. Their next Red Rooster LP was Kick Me Hard, released in 1979. 'That album was made with the intention of having some new studio stuff and some stuff from home and some stuff from the stage...,' said Terry Adams. 'It was a different type of record.' 1978 also brought the band a different type of manager: pro wrestler Captain Lou Albano. 'Well, we first got involved with a wrestler called Handsome Jimmy Valiant,' explains Tom. 'This was in '78 or '77. We had this Moon Pie festival once a year in Connecticut and we got him to come down to be the M.C. And he was managed by Captain Lou, so we said, 'We'd like to meet the Captain.' And he arranged for us to meet him. He came down to New York City with Captain Lou and that's how we got in with him. He's a lot of fun to hang around with. Those were good times.' 'He'd come out and insult the audience,' recalls Terry of Captain Lou. 'We'd send him out first and have him just intimidate everyone. Working with him was a highlight of our lives. He is a genius. Those were the days when wrestling was beautiful, you know?'

The band's next LP, Tiddlywinks, was recorded in December 1979 and released in 1980. The record included the Q classic 'Me And The Boys,' as well as 'Feel You Around Me' and a remake of 'You Can't Hide' from the group's Columbia days.

The musical highlight of Captain Lou Albano's association with NRBQ was the single 'Captain Lou,' an infectious number featuring the Captain on guest vocals and guitar. Originally released as a picture sleeve 45, sold at wrestling venues, the track later showed up on the album Lou And The Q. Among the other treasures on that LP is a manic spoken word track entitled 'Terry And The Raccoon,' cut at the same 1981 session as 'Captain Lou.' Tom Ardolino recalls, 'We would let the tape roll when he was there putting the vocals on the 'Captain Lou' song. And that's what he's like to be around. We recorded that at Grog Kill, Carla Bley's studio, and it's kind of in the woods. There's woods right outside the studio and there was a raccoon.'

After several fun-filled years with the Q, Captain Lou moved on, becoming Cyndi Lauper's manager in the mid-'80s. 'If you have something beautiful,' observes Terry, 'it's generally misunderstood by the industry. And then someone else comes along, takes it, goes with it and the originators are soon forgotten. But, in our case, I think people really know where the stuff comes from. You know, we saw all those people scared or frightened by wrestling, and then three years later wrestlers were doing ads for computers and it was fine.'

In July 1981 - just three months after recording with Captain Lou - NRBQ backed legendary singer Skeeter Davis (best known for her early '60s hits 'The End Of The World' and 'I Can't Stay Mad At You') on an album's worth of sessions. Although both artists delivered very memorable performances, the results went unreleased for four years. The recordings finally appeared in 1985 under the title She Sings, They Play and won a NAIRD Award for Country Album Of The Year. (The collaboration also led to something much more significant than a NAIRD Award: shortly after the record's release, Skeeter Davis and Joey Spampinato were married.)

In 1982, the band released their first live record, a four-song EP entitled NRBQ In Person. After that, the Q signed with Bearsville Records, the Warner Bros.-distributed label owned by former Dylan manager Albert Grossman. During sessions in August and November of '82 they recorded the tracks that would comprise the excellent Grooves In Orbit LP, released on Bearsville the following year. The record featured the instrumental talents of John Sebastian on two tracks, 'Hit The Hay' and 'I Like That Girl.' Says Terry, 'John is a master musician and we always like to work with him.' NRBQ returned the favor by backing the former Lovin' Spoonful leader on the soundtrack to 'The Care Bears Movie.' The two acts have made several subsequent guest appearances on each other's records and, in 1995, NRBQ cut a remake of the Spoonful classic 'Do You Believe In Magic?' with Sebastian and Japanese singer Takako Minekawa.

Meanwhile, at some point in '83, NRBQ had a falling out with Albert Grossman. Although the Q had already started work on a follow-up to Grooves In Orbit, Grossman wanted no more albums from them. The trouble was he wouldn't free them from their contract, so they couldn't record for anyone else either. Up until Grossman's death in 1986, the only way NRBQ could put out new records was by releasing material recorded prior to their Bearsville contract. So, towards the end of '83, they gave the world Tapdancin' Bats, a collection of odds and ends from earlier sessions. It was, according to Tom, a matter of 'getting out stuff that had been done for other things but got left off.' 1985 brought the Christmas Wish EP (recorded in '79 and therefore not violating the Bearsville contract), which mixed traditional favorites like 'Jingle Bells' with original material. The inspiring title track had previously appeared as a 45 in 1980.

In 1986, with the Bearsville situation still unresolved, several NRBQ reissues appeared on Red Rooster. First came the Workshop LP, retitled RC Cola And A Moon Pie, with the rare 'Sourpuss' and 'Don't Knock At My Door' added to the lineup. Also in '86 came the aforementioned Lou And The Q LP and the compilation Uncommon Denominators. The latter set featured tracks from the group's Rounder releases between 1971 and 1981, as well as 'People,' which had previously appeared only as the flip side to 'Me And The Boys' in 1980. A second compilation, entitled Through The Eyes Of A Quartet, was released in Britain the following year. In April 1987, a gig at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence was recorded and subsequently released as the live album God Bless Us All. After two decades of legendary performances a full-length live album was long overdue. Perhaps realizing this, the band followed it in 1988 with another live release, Diggin' Uncle Q, recorded the same weekend as God Bless Us All.

Next came a deal with Virgin Records, for whom the band cut the Wild Weekend album (co-produced by Andy Paley) in April 1988. In many ways, recalls Adams, 'we sort of let Virgin do whatever they wanted. They didn't alter the music, but they wanted to call the album what they did. We would've never named an album that. We let them make some decisions that, in the end, probably could've been better.' Nonetheless, Wild Weekend was a fine album, featuring soon-to-be classics such as 'Little Floater' and the title track, a cover of the 1963 Rebels instrumental hit, to which the Q had added lyrics. 1988 also saw the release of Al Anderson's second solo LP, Party Favors (his first, self-titled effort had appeared in '72, around the time he joined NRBQ). Also released was the Q's version of 'Whistle While You Work,' included on the Hal Willner-produced Disney tribute LP Stay Awake. The Q's track was edited into a medley that included performances by Garth Hudson, Betty Carter and the Replacements.

Wider exposure came when the band appeared as the opening act on R.E.M.'s 1989 tour. After that, work began on a second album for Virgin, a project that never reached fruition. Tom Ardolino recalls, 'They didn't want it. 'Girl Scout Cookies' would have been on it. I think we recorded one or two songs for that.' The one-album-per-label syndrome has cropped up a few times during NRBQ's career. 'What usually happens,' laments Tom, 'is we get signed, then the person that signed us leaves the company, then the company doesn't know what to do. That's why we never end up making a follow-up album for these labels.'

1990 brought the excellent two-disc compilation Peek-A-Boo, the first to include material spanning the group's entire career. Released by Rhino Records, this set is the best overall introduction to NRBQ. For those who are already acquainted with the band, a number of rarities were included. 'We were involved with that one,' explains Tom. 'They gave us a list of what they wanted and we gave them a list of what we liked and we kind of combined them. Rhino was nice with that.'

Rhino liked the band so much that they subsequently signed them to their Forward subsidiary to make a new album. The result of that deal was 1994's Message For The Mess Age, the band's first studio release in five years. Unfortunately, Al Anderson took his leave just as the album was released. 'I think he left, like, the day it came out,' says Tom. 'We knew it was coming, but we thought he'd wait until the album was out.'

Terry Adams is characteristically philosophical about Anderson's departure. 'Let me just say that Al put in a lot of time in the band and he worked hard. But he was tired of touring and whatever. He did a lot of good stuff. He put his whole self into it on the stage for many years and it's time in his life for something else, you know?'

Al Anderson's departure marked the end of a lineup that had remained intact since the mid-'70s. Still, the band had survived Steve Ferguson's departure and they would survive this, too. The remaining three recruited Joey's brother Johnny (formerly of the Incredible Casuals) to play guitar and, since then, the band has been as prolific as ever. Terry released his first solo album, Terrible, on the New World label, a beautiful album which perfectly captured his unique talents. The other members of NRBQ, particularly Tom, all appear on Terrible. A new live album, Tokyo, marked the renewal of NRBQ's relationship with Rounder Records. Recorded in April 1996 at On Air West in Tokyo, the disc was the first NRBQ album to feature Johnny Spampinato on guitar. Throughout all the phases of their career, NRBQ has kept up a steady pace of live performances. They've never played the same set twice and, to this day, refuse to use a set list. 'Terry calls it, whatever's happening,' says Tom. NRBQ gigs are truly spontaneous affairs, as the band draws on a huge repertoire of songs. On occasion, audience members are allowed to put requests into the Q's Magic Box. The group is then obligated to play whichever song is randomly drawn from the box, sort of a rock and roll version of 'Stump The Band.'

The band followed Tokyo with a new studio album, You're Nice People You Are, again on Rounder. Purportedly a children's album, You're Nice People is really for listeners of any age - fresh, fun and everything else you'd expect from NRBQ. Johnny Spampinato's strong presence as a singer and songwriter adds a pleasing new dimension, but the sound is pure NRBQ. Even Tom steps out from behind the drum kit to portray 'Professor Fleishaker' on 'The Music Lesson.' If all goes well, fans can expect more archival material to appear, such as reissues of early albums with bonus tracks. 'When the world is ready,' says Terry, 'there'll be plenty of music for them to hear, going all the way back - live and home recordings. That's one thing that we did right, I think, looking back over all these years. We recorded a lot and kept it, took good care of the tapes.' These days, says Adams, 'the music is better than ever, so we're working on the music. The labels and the legal things... I do think about 'em, I'm not saying I don't ever think about 'em. But right now we have something really good to do musically and, you know, make the world a better place.'

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