Email
Print
Local Bands Play To Help Founding Member Of NRBQ
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: December 18, 2008
Updated:
NRBQ's ability to play just about anything hasn't always worked in its favor.
"Rolling Stone reviewed our first album and trashed it," original 'Q drummer Tom Staley recalls. "They couldn't figure out where we were coming from."
"The album lumps together country music, hard rock, Sun Ra, cocktail lounge jazz, and folk ballads into an unlistenable collage," sniffed the Stone reviewer, his hippie sensibilities duly offended.
The reviewer may not have gotten it in 1969, but plenty of fans did, including famous supporters such as Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Bonnie Raitt and the producers of "The Simpsons."
Staley hopes the band's Tampa area fans will rally in support of original NRBQ guitarist Steve Ferguson.
Ferguson, who lives in Louisville, Ky., has bone cancer. "He's got some insurance," Staley says. "It covers some of his treatment but it's not nearly enough."
Staley currently plays with Tampa lounge-surf fusionists The Vodkanauts. That band, as well as Ronny Elliott, Freight Train Annie and others will perform NRBQ songs Sunday at a benefit show for Ferguson.
NRBQ formed in 1967 in South Florida. The lineup featured Ferguson and Staley, singer Frank Gadler, bassist Joey Spampinato and keyboardist Terry Adams.
By 1974, Ferguson, Gadler and Staley were gone. Adams took over lead vocals, while Al Anderson and Tom Ardolino moved in on guitar and drums, respectively.
This was the longest-running lineup of the band (Anderson left in 1994, replaced by Spampinato's brother Johnny).
"But as far as what the band originally was all about, the essence was in the original band," Staley asserts. As evidence, he offers "Ludlow Garage 1970," a live set released in 2006 by Sundazed.
"Ludlow" makes a solid case for Staley's claim. Kicking off with a mind-bending take on Sun Ra's "Rocket Number Nine," the band tears through tunes by Little Richard, Wilson Pickett, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Hank Ballard as well as Ferguson originals such as "Flat Foot Floozy" and "When It's Summertime in the Wintertime."
"Steve is unique in the sense that he's a great songwriter and singer as well as a picker," Staley says.
"He's one of the unsung guitar slingers of all time," Staley says. "Lonnie Mack was a big influence, and Steve's influences blossomed after he met Terry, who turned him on to Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk and the avant-garde."
Benefits for Ferguson already have been held in Louisville, Staley says.
Donations can be made at www.stevefergusonfund.com.
CONCERT EVENT
NRBQ tribute
(benefit for original NRBQ guitarist
Steve Ferguson)
WITH: The Vodkanauts, Ronny Elliott & the Nationals, Jon Puhl & the Treblemakers, Sackowoe, Swankyhank, Freight Train Annie and Tailgunner Joe & the Earls of Slander
WHEN: 5 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road, Tampa; (813) 971-0666
COST: $10
Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2010 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. | Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
