A Quick Fix For The Holiday Blues

The Rock n' Roll Magic Of NRBQ

A surefire remedy for the holiday doldrums (or any manner of glumness for that matter) is the music of NRBQ, hands-down. The hardest working band in show business is also the hardest rocking with an unbeatable stage act that spans nearly 40 years of the sweatiest, fun-filled nights of rock n' roll. Often referred to as 'The World's Greatest Bar Band,' The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet have justly earned the title of simply 'World's Greatest Band, Period' in my musical encyclopedia, as the 'Q' are indisputably my most favorite band in the known universe. They're funny, versatile, spontaneous, unpredictable and passionate to the highest degree. You can throw in musical and prolific too, as NRBQ offers a well spring of imaginative material penned by not one, but three songwriters within the band, all distinctly different but cohesive. And did I mention that they absolutely kill when it comes to rockabilly? Over the many years, they have become my friends both onstage and off, and I love them dearly for the endless hours of joy that they've brought me.

It's never been easy to explain the experience of the Q. Some time ago, I tried describing the band to a younger friend who responded, "Oh, kinda like The Replacements, except for the previous generation!" It was a humorous yet relatively salient observation. Yes, like the Mats, NRBQ are mercurial, frequently throwing in the unexpected cover tune. And yes, like the Mats, NRBQ can sometimes be sloppy in their exuberance, which is a part of their onstage charm. But no, unlike the Mats, NRBQ never suffered the alcohol abuse or subsequent fistfights that plagued the former during their lifetime. Nevertheless, the comparison was a valid one, but I later found a more succinct, nearly perfect description to explain the band to others.

Remember The Lovin' Spoonful's, 'Do You Believe In Magic?' Over his strummed harpsichord, John Sebastian begins singing six descriptive lines,

"Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart
How the music can free her, whenever it starts
And it's magic, if the music is groovy,
It makes you feel happy like an old time movie.
I'll tell you about the magic, it'll free your soul,
But it's like trying to tell a stranger about rock n' roll."

That my friend is NRBQ. A passionate feeling that is wholly inexplicable. A strange and fascinating form of magic as indescribable as the power of rock and roll. A rich musical experience so indefinable yet fundamentally pure (like that of 'a young girls heart'), that it can't help but free the soul.

Sebastian continues in the next verse with the lines,

" If you believe in magic, don't bother to choose
If it's jug band music or rhythm and blues.
Just go and listen, it'll start with a smile
That won't wipe off your face no matter how hard you try.
Your feet start tapping and you can't seem to find
How you got there, so just blow your mind."

And there it is. Although written before their time, the lyrics to 'Do You Believe In Magic' exemplify NRBQ more than Sebastian or the band themselves could ever have imagined. As masters of their art, the group creates wizardry out of rock, jazz, country, r&b and more, zanily veering from genre to genre like the silver ball within a pinball machine. It confounds, yet somehow all makes perfect sense in the end. A joyful form of sorcery. Then of course there's the random comic forays into television theme songs and novelty numbers via 'The Box.' Set list be damned, the band telepathically launch into anything from Sun Ra's 'Rocket No.#9' to Carl Perkins or The Stylistics. From there it could careen toward a Lennon/McCartney classic or a Burt Bacharach masterpiece. My favorite surprises have been Thelonious Monk's 'Little Rootie Tootie' and the 'Theme Song from Petticoat Junction.' Original material notwithstanding, NRBQ treat their audience to a virtual jukebox of American music through the course of an evenings worth of entertainment. This eclecticism is the foundation of their 'bar band' status among critics and it, along with their high degree of musicality, comprise the hallmarks of the band. Additionally, the band have always been true to themselves not following trends, but rather their hearts. Despite a career spanning decades, you'll find no psychedelic phase, or dance floor friendly disco beats. No 'unplugged' sessions or flirtations with rap. There are no light shows, smoke or mirrors. No theatrics or pretense, and certainly no wanking. Just four guys with incredible talent who make great music and share it freely with the world. But what truly makes the Q so remarkable is the passion with which they create. Genuinely loving what they do, their onstage enthusiasm and sincerity translate into an infectious energy that radiates well beyond the bandstand and directly to their audience.

As much as I love them for it, their diversity and pleasure taken in performing works against them as well, and could easily be the very reason they has not garnered the success they've deserved. The uninitiated are often baffled by the breadth of their repertoire, unable to easily label or categorize them with a convenient stamp. Additionally, their high spirit and onstage hijinks occasionally make for a somewhat sloppy show, leaving some unenlightened viewers thinking them slipshod and unrehearsed rather than loose and impulsive. But if you truly listen, there is no denying that they burn white hot in the midst of all the fun and tomfoolery. One need only hear their studio output to be truly convinced of the high level of musicianship and song writing prowess they possess. Check out 'Want You To Feel Good' or 'Me And The Boys' to witness their ability to rock, or 'I Love Her, She Loves Me' for a softer, tender side. If it's sophistication you question, try 'Blame It On The World' or 'Sail On, Sail On' for their craftsmanship and sheen. You see, when it comes songs from the Q, there are no grand gestures or heavy messages, just simple tunes about the normal things that guys gravitate to, like girls, cars and drive-in movie shows (or maybe it's girls in cars at drive-in movie shows). The fact the the band members are well past boyhood does not make their choice of topics the least bit creepy. Their themes are steeped in American culture from a simpler time and clearly speak to the need to keep just a bit of purity of heart and innocence within us to keep us from becoming old and codgey before our time. If there is one inherent message to be found in their music, it's contained within their appropriately titled, 'Message For The Mess Age' and is shared in 'Advice For Teenagers.' The imparted wisdom is obviously the credo by which they have led their lives both as individuals, and as a unit. The Q's material is not designed as a conscious exercise in nostalgia mind you, but rather a diversion from the mundanities of everyday living, and the relative innocence and good natured tenor of their work endears them to those who share their bonhomie. For example, take a listen to 'Housekeeping.' Where other bands would write about the excess, debauchery, boredom or bad food associated with life on the road for the privileged rock star, NRBQ takes the more human approach of declaring the simple desire for a much needed good nights sleep! It's hilarious, and a circumstance to which any weary traveler can relate. But more importantly, it's real and it's honest, and that too is what NRBQ are about. Real people with real talent playing really honest rock and roll. Atsa' my band!

1) Get Rhythm
2) Want You To Feel Good Too
3) That's Alright
4) My Girlfriend's Pretty
5) Be Careful What You Ask For
6) Me And The Boys
7) The Music Goes Round And Round
8) Blame It On The World
9) Smackaroo
10) Wild Weekend
11) Green Lights
12) I Love Her, She Loves Me
13) Housekeeping
14) Ain't It Alright
15) Trouble At The Henhouse
16) Advice For Teenagers
17) Rain At The Drive-In
18) Over Your Head
19) Don't Bite The Head
20) Sail On, Sail On
21) Don't You Know
22) All Night Long
23) Hobbies
24) That's Neat, That's Nice
25) I Like That Girl
26) Theme From Bonanza

To download, click here and get rhythm!

Nearly all of NRBQ's catalogue is still in print and available here, among other places. If you'd like to add a few titles to your library, I'd suggest 'Tiddlywinks' or 'At Yankee Stadium' as a place to begin. 'Message For The Mess Age' is another launching pad I'd highly recommend.

Additionally, the band is offering a free 60 minute MP3 download of a live show recorded back in 1985 and which is available on their website.

That's The Way I Feel Now

It's Only Christmas Bringing Me Down


The title above is self-explanatory. If you revel in the 'Spirit of Christmas' read no further, as this week's post is not for you. On the other hand, if you find the 'Holiday Season' to be an overblown, forced exercise in gaiety and merrymaking, filled with more false hope and broken promise than a F.E.M.A. relief effort, you've found a kindred soul. Not that I wish to be curmudgeonly. In theory, I fully embrace the concept of Christmas. Peace on earth, global unity and brotherhood of man are the noblest of wishes. True paradise would surely be a new world order devoid of conflict, strife and greed. The problem however is that those aspirations have proven millennium after millennium to be completely unrealistic and wholly unobtainable. All the warm spirit and glad tidings that fill the season cannot possibly counteract the basic inhumanities embedded deep in our DNA and carried with us since the dawn of time. The implied reasoning that setting aside 5 weeks of the year to exercise the fundamental and altruistic values of fellowship means nothing, especially if those values are not held universally and practiced unwaveringly, day in and day out. Sadly, the implicit tenets behind Christmas have failed me. Commerce has become king and the 'spirit' convoluted and compromised. In our modern society, the 'Season of Giving' equates to material consumerism rather than the more organic and genuine giving of self. The result is that the holiday lamentably holds little more for me than emptiness and heartache, intensified that much more by the obligatory seasonal cheer that often rings just too false.

It's a conflicted this time of year for me, as this weeks music will demonstrate. However, I do encourage you to celebrate and make it joyous if you can. A little benevolence would certainly benefit us all. But ask yourself come January whether you can truly carry the spirit of Christmas with you through the year to come? If your answer is yes, I heartily commend and thank you for the scope of your humanity. You and few others will stand alone. Meanwhile, a vast segment of Western civilization will be masturbating over their latest electronic gadgets, shopping for year-end bargains on unnecessary paraphernalia to supplement them and stowing away the decorations to be largely forgotten until next December. Regrettably, along with the ornaments and colored lights, the true spiritual essence of Christmas will also get pushed deeper to the recesses of the closet, where it too will eventually be lost and forgotten.

That's The Way I Feel Now

1) Christmastime Is Here/Vince Guaraldi Trio
2) Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow/Marcus Roberts
3) Billy's Blues/Laura Nyro
4) Monk's Mood/Sharon Freeman Band
5) Vauncing Chimes/Bobby Watson & Horizon
6) I Remember You/Stanley Turrentine & Milt Jackson
7) Pannonica/Barry Harris
8) Útviklingssang/Carla Bley Big Band
9) Where Am I Going/Manfred Mann's Chapter Three
10 & 11) Medley: Big City Traffic Jam:Joy To The World/John Simon
12) White Christmas/Dick Hyman
13) Cherry Blossom/Horace Silver Trio
14) Could Be/Les McCann & Gerald Wilson Orchestra
15) The Glow/Bonnie Raitt
16) The Voice Of The Saxophone/Heath Brothers
17) Silent Night/Benny Green

To download, click here.

The photograph in this post comes courtesy of David Kohrman from his wonderful website, Forgotten Detroit.

Biff! Bang! Pow!, Pt.2

From Beat To Paisley Pop

As the vice grip we call 'The Christmas Season' continues to tighten it's hold on my mental health, I'm taking an easy route this week by offering Part 2 of 'Biff! Bang! Pow!,' a self-compiled anthology of mid-60's British pop music from Beat to Paisley Pop. Not intended as a definitive collection, it simply assembles some of my favorites (and hopefully yours) from the British Invasion of some 40 years ago. Part 1 appeared back in August of this year and focused primarily on Beat recordings with contributions from The Knickerbockers, Searchers, Hollies, Easybeats, Sorrows and others of the ilk. It concluded with a group and song that marked a major turning point not only in British pop, but for rock music as a whole; The Who's 'My Generation.' In just under 3:30, Beat music said hello to the new kid on the block, Freakbeat. Never before had the frustration and angst of misunderstood youth been expressed or captured so succinctly in song. The rage that exploded from within the grooves of that record forever changed the musical landscape. More than just a sound, it was a milestone; an attitude and spirit unlike anything felt in pop music prior. 'My Generation' was pure, absolute kinetic energy; lyrics so bitter, the singer helplessly stammers in his attempt to convey his anger, spitting and stuttering against the squeal of flailing guitar, the rumble of pounding drums and tumult of treble infused bass lines cutting through the din. When the songs volatility is no longer able to contain itself, it violently detonates into a frantic rave up of feedback and squall that does everything short of nailing the listener directly to the wall. I will never forget the first time 'My Generation' roared unsuspectingly from my radio speaker. I was completely unhinged, transfixed and dumbfounded not only by the sonic assault, but also the accuracy of how it's disenfranchisement echoed my that of my own. Years later, after I had long worn out the mono 45 r.p.m. single that I'd purchased, I nailed it to the wall as a reminder of the power and significance of that moment in my life.

This 2nd installment of 'Biff! Bang! Pow! picks up where Pt.1 left off with the highly aggressive sounds of Creation, The Attack, Yardbirds, The Move and of course, The Who once again.* As the scene and it's music evolved, the comparatively benign Beat sounds swiftly gave way to the bolder, more forceful Freakbeat which is represented here. No longer did the innocence of danceable pop resonate with the fast changing values of youth. The generation was collectively primed to take control of their destiny and the new music reflected it. Later, as recreational drug use became an integral part of the culture, the music would then begin to take it's first steps into psychedelia with Paisley Pop which will eventually be explored in Pt.3.

For the record, Biff! Bang! Pow!, Pt.2 includes one British influenced American band who were also featured earlier this year in TR-i (The Rundgren-index). An inaccurate inclusion I know, but it felt and sounded right. Consider it 'poetic license.'

1. MAKING TIME/CREATION
2. MUD IN YOUR EYE/LES FLEUR DE LYS
3. INTERLUDE
4. UNDER THE ICE/THE NAZZ
5. SAY THOSE MAGIC WORDS/THE BIRDS
6. SHAPES OF THINGS/THE YARDBIRDS
7. PAPERBACK WRITER/THE BEATLES
8. OUT IN THE STREET/THE WHO
9. TIN SOLDIER/SMALL FACES
10. INTERLUDE
11. STROLL ON/THE YARDBIRDS
12. TRY AND STOP ME/CREATION
13. WAVE YOUR FLAG AND STOP THE TRAIN/THE MOVE
14. LITTLE GAMES/THE YARDBIRDS
15. INTERLUDE
16. HAVE SOME MORE TEA/THE SMOKE
17.GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME (GOOD TIMES)/THE EASYBEATS
18. OPEN MY EYES/THE NAZZ
19. THE IMMEDIATE PLEASURE/THE EYES
20. I CAN SEE FOR MILES/THE WHO
21. THE COLOUR OF MY MIND/THE ATTACK
22. INTERLUDE
23. BIFF BANG POW/CREATION
24. WHY/TOMORROW
25. I WANT TO TELL YOU/THE BEATLES
26. CIRCLES/LES FLEUR DE LYS
27. HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO/THE YARDBIRDS
28. INTERLUDE
29. SORRY/THE EASYBEATS
30. WHEN THE NIGHT FALLS/THE EYES

To download, click here.

*The Kinks are conspicuous in their absence but will be represented later.

Abdullah Ibrahim

Dollar Brand
And His Transformative, Healing Powers


December is my least favorite month of the year. It's a combination of several obvious factors --- the way the winter light washes out the landscape to a dreary monochrome, the unending rainy days and of course, darkness by 5 p.m. But more so, it's the compulsory Christmas jollity that affects my disposition. Admittedly Y2K was kind of exciting, what with the possibility of the world ending and all that, but overall the holiday season is largely a major bringdown. On rare occasions, I might find comfort in a steaming cup of joe at some seaside cafe overlooking the Pacific, but it's not often. It speaks volumes when a force of nature as powerful as the sea can fail to hearten me. But then, December is like that for me.

One year, the 12th calendar month stands out in my mind as a particularly difficult one. Somewhere between my stint at the wonderful KJAZ and my last commercial gasp at KKCY 'The City,' I temporarily moved to London to pursue a budding romance and a vain attempt at making inroads to a working position with the IBC. Despite some sage advice from the pre-M.B.E. Johnny Walker* (regarding IBC, not the romance!), the trans-Atlantic jump was not to be, but that's another story. Ditto for the romance.

Now as you probably know, London is a terribly expensive city and contrary to popular belief, jazz DJ's are not the highest paid personalities in the radio food chain. My money disappeared faster than an unchained bicycle at a parking meter. Fourteen months into my folly, my pockets were beginning to feel the strain. Returning from a short trip across the Channel, I attempted to economize by briefly sharing a cold water flat with the most eccentric of Englishmen, a character right out of Central Casting who shall remain anonymous. Weather aside, it was undoubtedly the most miserable December in memory. Recommended to me by a mutual friend as "an interesting guy who could use some help," I interpreted this to mean that he could use a bit of extra cash in return for a place for me to temporarily hang my hat. Turns out that money was not the sort of help he needed. Independent wealth notwithstanding, the "interesting guy" slummed in candlelit semi-squalor, foregoing electric lights and central heating as "too bourgeois," although he did own a quality hi-fi system and always had some mighty good French Burgundies. Dank, dreary and insufferably low rent, it was one step short of a squat. With perpetual cigarette glued to one hand and a wine glass to the other, he spat contempt at every turn for all things, save modern jazz through rotting teeth and raised nicotine stained fingers. I felt as though I had accidentally time traveled back to Dicken's London Town mid-nineteenth century as I threw another twig onto the fire, hoping to stave off pneumonia. The saving grace of my two week residency, despite his kindness in sharing his digs (and wine) with me was my recent acquisition of Abdullah Ibrahim's 'Nisa:African Violets' while on the mainland. Recorded in 1978, 'Nisa:African Violets' stands as an exquisite example of Ibrahim's distinctively personal and soulful brand of composition and piano. A solo effort, this unusual studio LP rarely even shows up in official discographies yet it is easily one of his most exceptional performances.

Ibrahim's gift is to fuse the ancestral streams of traditional African and popular music with pure American jazz, resulting in a unique synthesis of Cape Town marabi, kwela and shabeen, colored with overlapping shades of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. 'Nisa' beautifully showcases more the Monk side of that equation, and much like Sphere's solo work, Abdullah's playing reveals fluid nuance and subtlety with every listen. Deeply spiritual, Ibrahim uses his music as a constructive tool of positive energy and rebirth. His South African roots under apartheid however will never allow him nor his listeners to forget the long suffering of his people. This is what made 'Nisa:African Violets' such compelling listening for me during my stay with 'Ebenezer,' as it still does today. The rich, complex and poignant beauty of Abdullah's playing, particularly in that moment of time, accurately captured the inner ache that I felt --- trapped in the midst of a failed dream some 5,000 miles from home, out of luck, out of love and crashing in a cold, dark and drafty Camden walk-up, my hopes washed out like the December skies. Listening to 'Nisa:African Violets,' I found fleeting solace in the healing power of Abdullah Ibrahim's emotionally expressive music and was spiritually transformed, if only for a moment. But then, Ibrahim's music is like that for me.

1.) Nisa, The Woman
2.) Kariba Blue
3.) The Touch Of Your Lips
4.) Matsidiso
5.) New York City
6.) The Wedding, Cape Town

To download 'Nisa:African Violets,' click here.

For more information on Abdullah Ibrahim, visit his official site.

*Walker had previously worked for Radio Caroline and KSAN. I knew him from the latter.