FFWD Weekly
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| Music by Mary-Lynn McEwen NRBQ What d’ya need to know about NRBQ to enjoy their chemistry-lab-sink version of folk-rock-pop-jazz-blues-alternative music at the folk fest this year? Is it important that they were formed in 1969? Do you really need to know that they have around two dozen albums out, they’ve toured the world about as frequently as the Rolling Bones, and they count – or is it admit to? – Paul Westerberg, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney among their fans? Really, you don’t even need to know that much to dig the music, and that’s probably just as well if you’re trying to get information from keyboardist Terry Adams. After slipping away between days and phone calls, he puts his 30 years experience in not dealing with the press to great use when finally nailed down to an interview time. Pertinent topics that arise within the first moments of the conversation include: the fact that the band’s love of touring Canada is second only to their enjoyment of touring Japan; the reason for their first love is because of Japanese girls; and that the second most important reason for NRBQ to come to Calgary – after to play music, of course – is our reputation for premium quality Canada Grade A wheat grass juice. Not that Adams, who’s traded in his Hammond B3 organ and clavinet for a baby grand piano in recent years, will admit to much very readily. "No, we weren’t difficult to pin down. That’s not me. That’s your people and my people, but it’s not you and me," claims the musician from a stop in Vermont, not pausing before changing the subject. "You’re in Calgary? I heard you got wheat grass juice up there. I’ve got a committee. The investigating committee told me. I drink it often. Every time I see it!" And queried about whether he gets the legendary buzz from the slimy green elixir, Adams shoots back, "Well, yeah, I do, but can we talk about that? Do you wanna go there?" And if the player seems a bit difficult to pin down, well, probably that’s just a reflection of NRBQ’s music. Sounding like The Band for this song, The Beach Boys the next, then zooming through the continuum to even have their Social Distortion-type moments, NRBQ are hard to describe in a few sentences. What do you say about a band who has a following of Q-Heads that roam between their frequent shows? A band that pulled off the Berlin Jazz Fest and the New York Folk Fest in the same week? A wonderful band, the mention of which elicits strictly one of two reactions in the respondents: "Who?" or "Gods!" And nowhere is that sentiment showcased more painfully than in the band’s own press kit, which modestly states: "It’s been said there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think NRBQ is the greatest rock ’n’ roll band ever, and those who have yet to hear them." "Well, somebody must have said that, right? I mean, it says it’s been said, a source. You can say anything," Adams laughs, too much the pro to blush at the hype. "We have a whole bunch of people who are our fans and we keep adding to them every day. Every day we have a new fan and three new enemies." The band’s most recent album, a live offering called You’ve Gotta Be Loose which features their charming ’70s favourite, "Ridin’ In My Car," are testimony to the reasons for the stockpile of fans, and Adams, for once, seems not to be eluding the question about the group’s longevity. "We’ve never had an argument. I don’t know (why). It’s just never happened. It’s tough enough out there in the rest of the world, you gotta keep some of it safe." But seconds later, looking ahead to their new September release, he contradicts: "We had this big fight and I said if it wasn’t called Close Encounters of the Hundredth Kind, it’s not gonna have a name. I’m just making this up. We’re organic!" Yep. Organic as wheat grass, both the kind served in tiny glasses and that which has been processed through the intestines of an uncastrated male bovine. |
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