Are You A Q Head?

The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, or quintet, depending on how old you are. You probably know them as plain old NRBQ. What’s that? You don’t know them at all?

I always think of them as Massachusetts folk, even though they’re from all over. The bass player, Joey Spampinato, still lives on Cape Cod, and his brother Johnny — a sometimes member of NRBQ — is a member of The Incredible Casuals, who played at the Beachcomber in Wellfleet every Sunday for thirty years or so.

The music business seems trivial on its face, but it’s as grim as the Cosa Nostra on the back end. You can never get really famous unless you’re as serious as a heart attack about getting famous all the time. Some people are just too good-natured about the whole thing to ever become a household word. They just become household words in other musicians’ households. Exhibit A: NRBQ