Artist:     NRBQ

Album:     NRBQ

Label:     Omnivore Recordings

Release Date:     3.16.18

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Eclectic, daring and utterly unique, NRBQ gleefully colored outside the lines on a thrilling self-titled 1969 debut album of frenzied rock ‘n’ roll fun that sounds as fresh and uninhibited as ever. They did just as they pleased, even insisting on knocking everything out in one take—with famed producer Eddie Kramer watching, as the dutiful engineer—and unabashedly covering both rebellious 1950s rocker Eddie Cochran and space-jazz explorer Sun Ra.

That takes some chutzpah, and NRBQ had it in spades. They were itching to show off their surprisingly mature chops and youthful energy. At the same time, they wanted to throw a party that’s still going strong 49 years later. Omnivore Recordings is sending out more invitations, with a gloriously remastered reissue , complete with a good selection of vintage photos and enthusiastic, holistic commentary from Jay Berman and others, that presents the original album and nothing more. No half-baked demos, no muddy live material, no alternate versions better left to the dustbin of history. It’s just that great opening salvo from NRBQ, cleaned up for more visits from longtime fans and anxious to baptize new converts in its audacious brilliance.

Where else would anyone find an exuberant, careening version of Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” succeeded by the cosmic, yet oddly approachable, psychedelia of Sun Ra’s avant-garde epistle “Rocket #9” in the first two tracks? “You Can’t Hide” and the rip-roaring “Stomp” are even more infectious, all wild-eyed, full-throttle action speeding away as if being chased by the devil. That goes double for the feverish boogie-woogie of “Mama Get Down Those Rock and Roll Shoes,” a rollicking contrast to the reflective “Fergie’s Prayer,” with its complex, steely coils of acoustic guitar, and “Ida,” Terry Adams’ lovely collaboration with free jazz visionary Carla Bley that’s imbued with raggedy Southern soul.

Defined by spontaneity, quicksilver guitars and keyboards, swinging rhythms and spirited genre-hopping madness, NRBQ – composed here of Adams, Joey Spampinato, Frank Gadler, Tom Staley and Steve Ferguson – saved the best for last on its first record. Closer “Stay with We” is absolutely confounding, arranged in the most wonderfully weird way possible with powerful vocals and sounds that seem alien and yet familiar. And it works, as does their entire landmark debut, even though their curious mix of jazz, blues, country and rock shouldn’t. What a wild ride.

—Peter Lindblad