An Evening with NRBQ
with Special Guests, The Franc Graham Band
Reserved Seats: $25 and $20
Saturday, March 8, 8pm
Please call the box office for tickets
Tel: 781-646-4TIX (4849)

“They’re the most significant band that I could mention. And I love the Rolling Stones in a way that defies description. But I think NRBQ is the best rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. Always have and I always will… the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time.”
Bonnie Raitt

“They’ve got perfect sweet-voiced ballads… and they rock like crazy. They’ve got some really great straight-up pop songs, that in more ruthless hands probably would have yielded a shorter and brighter career. I don’t know how the guys feel, but I wouldn’t have traded it for what they’ve done.”
Elvis Costello

"We're WORLD FAMOUS… and anybody who doesn't know that has never heard of us!"
Terry Adams at NRBQ's 30th Anniversary Celebration

That last of the above quotes may have been offered somewhat in jest, but it contains a lot of truth about the strange and wondrous three-decade saga of NRBQ, and its relationship with the world at large. In its own peculiar way, NRBQ — formally, the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, but just "the Q" to friends and fans — is famous — there may be no other group of musicians in the history of rock that has so consistently enjoyed the adoration and adulation of their peers — from the very beginning, they have been known as the quintessential musician's musicians (the story goes that no less a luminary than Jimi Hendrix was seen at one of their shows way back in 1969, standing on his chair and swinging his shirt over his head as he whooped for the Q ), and their fan base has long included a veritable Who's Who of the music world, including Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, R.E.M. and the Replacements, to name but a few. This reputation among musicians knows no generational bounds, either: the Q is also among the favorite bands of a whole new breed of artists, including the members of such groups as Barenaked Ladies, Widespread Panic, Yo La Tengo and all three of Ben Folds Five.

With all that love and respect from such expert witnesses (and no small amount of critical acclaim as well), you'd think that NRBQ would, indeed, be one of the most famous bands on the planet. But in spite of all that (not to mention a large body of excellent recorded work and an unparalleled reputation for legendary live shows), NRBQ has often been regarded with something approaching total incomprehension by the mainstream of the music business. Perhaps this is because NRBQ's sound is such a singular, freewheeling, genre-busting blend of musical flavors — rock, pop, jazz, blues, R&B, polka, rockabilly and much more — that it confounds the industry's compulsion to fit everything into neatly formatted little pigeonholes. But whatever the reason, NRBQ has remained far too well-kept a secret to much of the radio-listening and record-buying public for far too long.

Until now, that is… for some mysterious and marvelous reason — Luck? Perseverance? The new Millennium? — the world finally seems to be getting a grip, and NRBQ is, all of a sudden, just about impossible to ignore, popping up in all sorts of major magazines, on television and even on the silver screen.

The timing for all this could not be more perfect, as NRBQ has been on a major roll, musically speaking.
Old fans attest that the Q is at an all-time peak, and new fans are asking where this band has been all their lives. The quartet plays with the kind of telepathic ease that can only come from working together for a very long time: Co-founders Terry Adams and Joey Spampinato (keyboards and bass, respectively) have been on board from the very beginning; Drummer Tom Ardolino is closing in on 30 years in the Q; and the relative newcomer, guitarist Johnny Spampinato is in his tenth year and sounds as though he's been there all along (which, in a sense, he has — since big brother Joey started the band, Johnny has been hanging around the Q since he was a kid).

This wave of irresistible momentum began in 1999, when the Q officially celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a new studio album and a memorable pair of birthday shows at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Shortly thereafter NRBQ attained something approaching pop-culture immortality when the band made its debut in animated form on television's longest-running comedy series, The Simpsons. The Q’s music had already appeared a record number of times on the show’s soundtrack, earning them the title of “unofficial house band of The Simpsons”. But the November 28th, 1999 installment was pretty much wall-to-wall Q, with five soundtrack appearances, the cartoon version of the band (playing in a biker bar visited by Homer) and, to top it all off, a live-action sequence of the Q playing its own version of the Simpsons theme, which ran under the final credits (something that was unprecedented in the show's history). Soon Hollywood came calling again, with NRBQ soundtrack appearances in two feature films: Where The Heart Is and 28 Days. The latter film also featured an on-screen appearance by the Q, as a wedding band.

Soon NRBQ will be in America’s living rooms again, performing the theme music for a new comedy series on the Fox network called The Pitts, created by longtime Simpsons executive producer Mike Scully. Scully, who has been an NRBQ fan since he was in his teens, has also made a documentary about the band, slated to debut on the A&E cable channel in early 2003. . In addition to preset-day and archival footage of the band in performance and conversation, the film also features heartfelt testimonials to the glory that is the Q by such friends and fans as Bonnie Raitt, R.E.M., Keith Richards, Elvis Costello Drew Carey and Penn Jillette, to name but a few.

Also in the works is an all-star tribute album from Spirit House Records, with some of the top artists in various genres performing their favorite NRBQ songs. Among those already committed to contribute tracks are Bonnie Raitt, Barenaked Ladies, Mike Mills (of REM), John Prine, Steve Earle, Widespread Panic and Yo La Tengo , with others to be announced.

And of course, there continues to be a steady flow of great music from NRBQ, onstage, in the studio, and in the form of archival recordings. In just a bit over a year, the band has released three new titles on its own Edi-Sun label: The all-new studio album Atsa My Band and two collections of never-before-released vintage Q. Also released recently was “NRBQ Live At Mountain Stage,” a collection of some of the band’s peak performances on the popular public radio series. And on the near horizon are: a long-awaited release of a 1970 NRBQ show at Cincinnati’s famed Ludlow Garage, from Sundazed Records; a 1983 performance with John Sebastian, to be released in Japan, and still more.

More than thirty years into their amazing saga, NRBQ is still the greatest young band around.
NRBQ Website

Franc Graham

"her blues-inflected rock is electric poetry, rock with emotion [and a] snaky, tough groove."
ink19

Franc Graham Band Website

Return to Events Calendar