Durable Goods : After 27 Years of Ups, Downs and Touring, NRBQ Is Still Dedicated to the Cause

NRBQ is like a tough and lovely patch of dandelions. You can whack at it, let Fido do his business on it, pour poison on it, yet it always seems to come back flowering and glowing.

The group, which performs Sunday at the Coach House, was formed in 1968 in Miami as the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet. Through myriad personnel changes, difficulties with record labels and lack of interest from the mainstream public, the group has stubbornly and reliably endured.

“We’re Timex watches--we just keep on ticking,” founding keyboardist Terry Adams said in a recent phone interview. “You can get these little watches that look nice, but a Timex watch will go underwater; you can beat it with a hammer; you can run it over with your car, and it keeps on ticking. We’ve been here many a day; we’re here to stay--often imitated, never duplicated.”

The Q is in the midst of another one of many rough patches. Longtime lead guitarist, singer and songwriter Al Anderson took a powder in 1994 after tiring of the group’s ceaseless touring.

NRBQ is without a record contract, although finding a label to call home has been the story of the group’s life (the last album was 1994’s “Message for the Mess Age” on the Rhino Records subsidiary Forward Records).

Most tellingly, NRBQ hasn’t been on the road for months--perhaps the most serious sign of problems for a group often called “the hardest working band in show business.” But the eternally optimistic Adams--without question the world’s top NRBQ fan--refuses to even talk about these difficulties.

“If I start discussing what went wrong, whenever I read it back it sounds like there’s some problem with the music,” he said. “My point is, there is no problem with the music, so I avoid discussing it.

“We’re a success, or we wouldn’t still be here after 27 years,” he said. “There’s a few bands that have been together as long as us, but they take three years off between tours. We’ve worked continually, so we’re like 90 years old in rock time.”

Only rock time will tell whether NRBQ--founding members Adams and bassist Joey Spampinato plus longtime drummer Tom Ardolino and Anderson replacement Johnny Spampinato (Joey’s brother) on guitar--will be able to rebound in the wake of Anderson’s departure.

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Some fans considered Anderson the group’s premier songwriter and singer--he’s enjoying a successful career turning out hit songs for country singers and doing session work in Nashville--but it’s also wise to remember that NRBQ has already recovered from every other setback.

At the very least, the band’s wild eclecticism, stellar musicianship and sheer joy of playing will remain--and that should be enough to carry it through once again.

This is a band that will put a funk beat to a country tune, play bebop solos over roadhouse rock ‘n’ roll and then turn in a ballad that’s tender enough to put a lump in the throat.

NRBQ’s steadfast refusal to be musically pigeonholed has been a blessing and a burden--it’s the key to the group’s appeal and endurance, but perchance also the reason it has yet to really connect with anything more than cult following--albeit a large and ferociously loyal one.

Adams, who attended what he calls “the college of the phonograph,” goes so far as to equate limited musical tastes with bigotry.

“‘I listen to all music,” he said. “Anything that makes sound interests me. The Coasters, Link Wray, Elvis, Jimmy Reed--but naming names doesn’t make a difference. It’s really just a matter of listening to what humans have to say with music. There are no barriers. If you have those barriers, it’s the same as racism.

“I want to know what Howlin’ Wolf has to say--I’m interested in that, and I don’t care that he’s different than me,” Adams said. “I’m also interested in what Stravinsky has to say because he’s a human being--and so is John Cage and so are the Byrds.”

When not working with the Q, Adams busies himself with numerous side projects. He released a solo album last year, a jazz session that featured key members of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

He also has produced albums by several jazz and pop artists.But there’s no question that NRBQ is his top priority.

“They did an independent study on plants. They played alternative radio stations for half of them and NRBQ for the other half,” he said. “The NRBQ plants thrived and grew, and the other plants shriveled up. So while we’re on the subject, I want to tell your readers that all plants will be admitted at half-price for all of our Southern California dates.”

* NRBQ and Shook Up World play Sunday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. 8 p.m. $14.50. (714) 496-8930.