You Can’t Call Him Al : That’s Because He’s Johnny Spampinato, Who’s Taking the Big Guy’s Place in NRBQ

Joey Spampinato knows what it’s like to play alongside rock superstars. Now he is finding out what it’s like to play alongside his kid brother.

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Spampinato, 45, has spent his entire adult life as the bassist for NRBQ, a band legendary for its omnivorous and adventurous take on rock ‘n’ roll and for its sheer endurance.

Founded in 1967, when Spampinato hooked up with keyboards player Terry Adams, the band has survived more or less intact without ever having scored a hit or graduated from its grueling circuit of club gigs.

On a good night, as it careens from rockabilly to effervescent pop to space-jazz, the idiosyncratic Q is purely wonderful in its display of highly honed skill and its willingness to be downright dizzy in the quest of fun.

In recent years, rock’s royalty has taken notice of Spampinato’s work. Keith Richards drafted him into the band that backed Chuck Berry in the film “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and that led to an invitation from Eric Clapton to back him on a series of blues gigs in London. During his run with Clapton, Spampinato rang up Paul McCartney and wound up paying his hero a house call that became a jam session.

One musician he says he never got to play with was Johnny Spampinato, his younger brother.

But now they are making up for lost time. When Al Anderson resigned earlier this year from NRBQ after a 22-year run as the band’s guitarist, Adams, Spampinato and drummer Tom Ardolino quickly called on Johnny Spampinato to take over. The new lineup plays the Coach House tonight.

Given that the ever-scowling “Big Al” was a brilliant, utterly unorthodox player, a strong, sweet-toned singer and a writer of many a Q staple, he left a lot of space to fill when he quit the band after a New Year’s Eve gig in New York.

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Spampinato said that, while nothing was spoken, the other band members could tell that Anderson had become discontented and was looking for a change.

“I’m not saying it’s his fault, but it was starting to get to everybody, the way things were,” Spampinato said, adding that he wanted it understood that there is no feud and that the parting was amicable.

“We’re still friends with Al and want him to be successful, whatever he’s going to do. Leaving made him happier, and indirectly it made us happier.” With the younger Spampinato in the band, “I think everybody is perked up.”

Spampinato said there was no debate as to who should take over as the third player to occupy the NRBQ guitar chair (Anderson was preceded by Steve Ferguson).

“(Johnny Spampinato) was like our biggest fan from when he was a kid. He knows the ins and outs of this band, the pulse of it, the spirit of it,” he said.

At 38, the left-handed guitar player brings solid credentials, having played for seven years with the Incredible Casuals, a well-regarded Massachusetts band known for its pure-pop flair and strong harmonies.

Spampinato wrote some catchy songs on the Casuals’ two independent albums and displayed a strong voice that should fit nicely in a close-harmony blend with Joey’s similar chesty-but-sweet tenor.

As Joey puts it, “we have the sibling vocal chords. Me and Al always sang well together, we could blend pretty well. With me and Johnny, it will just fall in place.”

NRBQ’s recently released album, “Message for the Mess Age,” was recorded with Anderson, who contributed two strong numbers, “A Little Bit of Bad” and the fetching ballad “Another Word for Love.” Now NRBQ is in the middle of a four-month tour that is introducing a new guitarist, as well as the new album.

“When we first started, we thought (the lineup change) might have been a concern--fans might have thought, ‘Without Big Al, what’s going to happen?’ But we haven’t heard anything (negative) about it. They liked what they saw and heard, and it’s going to be OK.”

“Message for the Mess Age” is on Forward, a new imprint started by Rhino Records to showcase current material as opposed to the reissues and compilations for which Rhino is best known.

For NRBQ, it marks a return to the independent ranks after a major-label fling in 1989 with Virgin Records. The Virgin album, “Wild Weekend,” was a vibrant collection, but it failed to substantially lift NRBQ’s fortunes, despite the band’s opening slots on major tours by R.E.M. and Bonnie Raitt.

“We never based our staying together on the hit-record syndrome,” Spampinato said. “We had a different mission than that. We’ve been the route of a major label, and we didn’t see a real major difference. They were supposed to have more ins to the radio stations, but we didn’t notice any difference.”

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NRBQ takes a poke at the mass-marketing of rock music in one of its new songs, the Spampinato-Adams collaboration “Big Dumb Jukebox.”

“You’re makin’ me sick with the same old selection,” sings the band whose career has been based on mixing things up.

“Anybody can sit back and point fingers, but generally speaking, I think music has (tended to stay) in one place a little too long,” Spampinato said. “I loved Jimi Hendrix, but everybody copied him, and it went on too long. Or the Led Zeppelin thing had gone on too many years. People like it, I guess, but I thought music was supposed to change more than that.”

That, Spampinato said, is what makes NRBQ’s first personnel switch since Ardolino’s arrival in 1974 a healthy development.

“I’ve never felt like anything was forever. I don’t think I go for that ‘permanent’ idea. Musicians are supposed to be spontaneous. If you keep relying on something for so long, you’re bound to be stuck in the mud. Now we’re in a new situation, and we go on.”

* NRBQ, Fry Some Blues and White Boy James & Blues Express play tonight at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $16.50. (714) 496-8930.