NRBQ: Best Cult Band You Never Heard Of

This is another guest post from my buddy Rick in Phoenix on the legendary cult band NRBQ (New Rhythm & Blues Quartet). 

It’s all there in their first ‘hit’, “Flat Foot Flewzy” – an amazing guitar riff to lead off, sinking into a deep groove that keeps on rolling over a nonsense lyric, but throughout it all, music that just makes you want to smile.  NRBQ is one of the greatest bands of all time.

In some ways, NRBQ never ‘progressed’ from that initial shot.  They just kept creating small masterpieces over the years, refining the perfect pop song in a hundred different ways.  You can pick them up from nearly all their albums, from the rock splendor of “Me and the Boys”, to the novelty of “It Was An Accident”, to the touching “Another Word For Love”.  And any aficionado could add dozens to this random list.
 
One of the most admirable things, for me, about the Q is how they just kept doing it.  They never really cracked anything like the big time over more than 3 decades of recording and playing.  But they kept it up, and every live show was an unpredictable rollercoaster ride.
 
In person, they were always a riot. Terry Adams’ stage persona was a complete goofball, so much so that it took a while to realize that his stumbling approach to his keyboard overlaid some impressive chops as a musician.  And they always seemed to take real pleasure in playing together.  As they put it in “Things we like” – “We like to have lots of fun and play these songs for you”
 
Which brings up back to joy.  How joyous?  Tom Ardolino, their drummer, was just a fan when he got called to sit in on short notice.  He ended up playing with them for more than 30 years.  And there is nothing surprising when you hear that Tom has one of the biggest record collections in the world.

NRBQ have never been flashy, just deep, mining a rich vein to perfection.  An old friend and I were talking recently, and we agreed on a one-question test to determine if someone was a real music fan – “Do you love NRBQ?”  And, if they didn’t know the Q, playing half a dozen tunes would act as an instant aptitude test.

If you're not familiar with NRBQ, check out the video and some of the links below.

• NRBQ: Annoying main site, News, Live dates, Wikipedia
• Amazon: NRBQ, The Best of NRBQ , Gotta Be Loose (live)

Comments

[Learning guitar scales]

NRBQ? i've never heard of them, because you've mentioned them here, they must be very good, i'll check them.