NRBQ is an American rock band founded by Terry Adams (piano), Steve Ferguson (guitar) and Joey Spampinato (bass).[1][2] Originally the "New Rhythm and Blues Quintet", the group was formed circa 1965.[3][4][5] Adams disbanded it for a time, and the group re-formed in 1967.[1][2][6] The quartet 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.[1][7] Its membership comprises the quartet of pianist Adams, bassist Casey McDonough, guitarist Scott Ligon, and drummer John Perrin. Some of the members in the band's long history are singer, writer and bassist Joey Spampinato, guitarists Al Anderson and Johnny Spampinato; drummers Tom Staley and Tom Ardolino; and vocalist Frank Gadler.
NRBQ began in late 1965 as a rehearsal band in the Shively, Kentucky, home of brothers Terry and Donn Adams, and they appeared on stage for the first time in 1966.[5] Along with drummer Charlie Craig, they made home tapes of their experiments. The first known reference to the band's name can be heard on one of these home tapes, with Donn announcing, "Here they are, the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet!" as though presenting them to a live audience.
In late spring of 1966, guitarist Steve Ferguson was invited to join NRBQ after he quit Mersey-Beats USA (no relation to the Liverpool group who recorded "I Stand Accused"). He met Adams when the latter briefly joined Mersey-Beats USA to fill in for the regular keyboard player.[1] After playing a few live dates in Louisville, Jimmy Orten (Soul Inc) was recruited on bass and vocals and the band left for Florida in late 1966.
In Miami, early January 1967, NRBQ played six nights at The Cheetah. Soon after, Orten and Ferguson returned to Louisville. Adams stayed behind and joined The Seven of Us, a band that was playing the same club.[1][8] By August, the NRBQ was Adams (keyboards), Ferguson (guitar), Spampinato (bass) and Frank Gadler (vocals) from The Seven of Us, and Tom Staley (drums).
In December 1968, they began recording with Eddie Kramer at the Record Plant[9] and by early 1969 were signed to a two-record deal with Columbia Records. Their self-titled debut album was released that year, with songs by both Eddie Cochran and Sun Ra, and 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.[1]
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",[10] and drummer Tom Ardolino.[11] The Adams/Spampinato/Anderson/Ardolino quartet stayed together longer than any other incarnation of the band (20 years, from 1974 until 1994),[4][11] and was often augmented by the Whole Wheat Horns (Donn Adams, Keith Spring and others).
Starting in September 1989, NRBQ opened for R.E.M. on the "Acronym Tour"[7] with the first concert taking place on the 27th at the University of Dayton Arena. The last stop on the tour was at the Shoreline Amphitheater at Mountain View in Mountain View, California on October 21.[12]Rolling Stone's Sam Freedman noted that the NRBQ played a compressed 30-minute club show. He also reported that both Mike Mills and Peter Buck of R.E.M. watched each of the NRBQ's opening sets during their portion of the tour from the edge of the stage "as if to endorse NRBQ for their fans".[7]
In 1994 Anderson departed the group: he would become an award-winning Nashville songwriter for many country and 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, 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.[1][2]
Hiatus and return
NRBQ at Jim Porter's Good Time Emporium, Louisville, KY, October 24, 2014 Left to right: Bobby Lloyd Hicks, Terry Adams, Casey McDonough and Scott Ligon
After the Halloween engagement at Shank Hall in Milwaukee in 2004, NRBQ went on hiatus.[13] 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" and as the "Spaminato Bros.". After a number of months, Adams recovered well enough to tour with former drummer Staley and Japanese rockabilly group the Hot Shots.[1][2][11]
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 line-up 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 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, 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 and Ardolino on drums.
In March 2011, Adams posted an open letter to fans announcing that with the release of the upcoming album, Keep This Love Goin', this line-up would take on the NRBQ name. He also explained that while he did have tendinitis, the real reason for the hiatus was his treatment for cancer.[14] In May 2012, the group released a live album, We Travel the Spaceways, on Clang! records.[1][2]
During September 2012, bassist Donnelly was replaced by Scott Ligon's friend Casey McDonough. (As of 2021, Ligon and McDonough are also members of the Flat Five, based in Chicago.)
In July 2013, NRBQ toured with drummer Joe Camarillo of The Waco Brothers and Hushdrops, where he recorded two songs on the Brass Tacks album: "Greetings from Delaware" and "I'm Not Here". Bobby Lloyd Hicks became the drummer from 2013 to 2015. He played on "Love In Outer Space" and "Let Go" from the 5-CD box set High Noon. John Perrin became the drummer in 2015.[citation needed]
Steve Ferguson died of cancer on October 7, 2009.[15]
Tom Ardolino died on January 6, 2012, following a long illness.[11]
Bobby Lloyd Hicks died of bronchiectasis on February 20, 2017.
Joe Camarillo died on January 24, 2021, of a stroke after contracting COVID-19.[16][17]
Reunion shows
On April 27 and 28 of 2007, NRBQ gave a pair of "38th Anniversary" performances in Northampton, Massachusetts, the first public NRBQ shows since 2004. Both Anderson and Johnny Spampinato appeared in the line-up, along with "Whole Wheat Horns" Donn Adams and Jim Bob Hoke, and unannounced guest appearances by John Sebastian, original NRBQ drummer Staley and the band's former road manager Klem Klimek on saxophone. Gadler, former lead vocalist, also appeared.
NRBQ has a following from years of live shows. The band has been known to perform without a set list which makes the band, in the words of AllMusic's Mark Deming, "a stellar and wildly unpredictable live act."[1] In addition to its own compositions, the band performs a broad range of cover material and audience requests.
The Shaggs were an American rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1965. They comprised the sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin, Betty Wiggin, Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin. Their music has been described as both among the worst of all time and a work of unintentional brilliance.
Sap is the second studio EP by the American rock band Alice in Chains, released on February 4, 1992, through Columbia Records. Sap is mostly acoustic and marks the first time that guitarist Jerry Cantrell sings lead vocals in an Alice in Chains release, with the song "Brother". The EP was produced by Alice in Chains and Rick Parashar and features guest vocals by Ann Wilson of the band Heart, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Mark Arm of Mudhoney. The track "Got Me Wrong" became a hit two years later after being featured on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Clerks. On January 14, 1994, Sap was certified gold by the RIAA for the sale of more than 500,000 copies.
The Charlatans were an American folk rock and psychedelic rock band that played a role in the development of the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury music scene during the 1960s. They are often cited by critics as being the first group to play in the style that became known as the San Francisco Sound.
Greatest Hits is a greatest hits collection by the American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released on July 24, 2001, on Columbia Records.
The Incredible Casuals was an American rock band based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They were formed in 1980 by bassist and songwriter Chandler Travis, guitarist Steve Shook, drummer Vince Valium and guitarist Johnny Spampinato, brother of NRBQ's Joey Spampinato. The band has been described as "The Beach Boys meets the Who". The Incredible Casuals were created from the remnants of "Travis Shook and Club Wow", a comedy duo that opened for George Carlin, Martin Mull and others, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Midnight Special in the '70s.
Philosophy of the World is the only studio album by the American band the Shaggs, released in 1969.
Joseph Nicholas Spampinato is a multi-instrumentalist and was a founding member and bass player of NRBQ. He was also one of the band's lead singers and chief songwriters. Before NRBQ he played in several bands, including The Seven of Us, which in 1967 while in Miami, Florida, met another band, The Mersey-Beats USA. The bands merged to form NRBQ. On the group's first two albums, NRBQ and Boppin' the Blues Spampinato is credited as "Jody St. Nicholas".
Scraps is an album by the rock band NRBQ, released in 1972 on Kama Sutra Records, which also released their next album, Workshop. It is the group's first album with guitarist/vocalist Al Anderson, who would remain with the band for over twenty years. Anderson replaced previous guitarist Ken Sheehan. Anderson was prohibited from singing lead vocals on the album due to an existing contract as a solo artist with Vanguard Records. Frank Gadler, the group's original vocalist, sings lead on most of the songs, although Joey Spampinato,, sings lead on all the songs he had a hand in writing except "Don't Knock At My Door," on which Gadler takes the lead. A promotional version of the album was released with a different cover, entitled "Changes."
Tapdancin' Bats is an album by the band NRBQ. It was released in 1983.
The Jaggerz are an American rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They came to national attention with their single "The Rapper" which was released on the Kama Sutra label. "The Rapper" was No. 1 in the Record World Charts and No. 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1970. Having sold over one million copies, the recording received a gold record awarded by the R.I.A.A.
The Best Day Ever is the fourth soundtrack by the voice cast members of SpongeBob SquarePants. Written by Tom Kenny and musician and producer Andy Paley, it features musical cameos by Brian Wilson, Tommy Ramone, Flaco Jiménez, and others. The Best Day Ever album was released on September 12, 2006 to positive reviews from critics. Two months later, the episode the title soundtrack is based on aired in November of 2006.
At Yankee Stadium is a studio album by the American band NRBQ, released in 1978 by Mercury Records. In keeping with the band's sense of humor, the album's title is a joke; the album credits read "Recorded at Bearsville Studios, November 1977 ". The packaging includes photographs of the band members in an otherwise empty Yankee Stadium; these were taken as a birthday treat for bassist and founding member Joey Spampinato, when his bandmates arranged a private visit to the ballpark. Spampinato, a Bronx native, is a lifelong Yankees fan.
Terry Adams is an American musician and composer. He is a founding member of the band NRBQ, which was formed in 1965.
The Waco Brothers are an American alternative country, or country-punk rock, band based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Shaggs' Own Thing is a 1982 compilation album by the American band the Shaggs, containing unreleased recordings made between 1969 and 1975. In 1988, Shaggs' Own Thing and the Shaggs' first album, Philosophy of the World, were remastered and rereleased by Rounder Records as the compilation The Shaggs.
Thomas Robert Ardolino was an American rock drummer best known as a member of NRBQ.
The Spampinato Brothers were a rock band from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They played music combining a variety of styles including rockabilly, jazz rock, power pop, garage rock, alternative country, Americana music, country rock and folk rock.
Brass Tacks is an album by the rock band NRBQ. It was released by Clang! Records on June 17, 2014. It was NRBQ's third album since the band was re-formed by founding member Terry Adams in 2011. Besides Adams on keyboards and vocals, Brass Tacks features Scott Ligon on guitar and vocals, Casey McDonough on bass and vocals, and Conrad Choucroun on drums.
Peter Chandler Travis is an American musician, songwriter, producer and owner of Iddy Biddy record label. Travis plays many unique styles of music sometimes labeled as an "alternative Dixieland," though it is difficult to classify into genres. His career began with the comedic songwriting duo started with Steve Shook, Travis Shook and the Club Wow, which worked closely with top comedians of the time like George Carlin and Martin Mull. Travis co-founded Sonic Trout Records with Chris Blood and later created his own record company, Iddy Biddy. He has toured across America, Europe and Japan, and has developed a Japanese fan-base leading to several of Travis' albums being released on Japanese labels.
Message for the Mess Age is an album by the American band NRBQ, released in 1994. It marked the band's 25th anniversary as a recording act. The album became the band's biggest seller less than six months after it was released.
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