THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true … NRBQ’s first new album since 2014 is about to unleashed! No names have been changed and no one is innocent. In the lineup: Keyboardist Terry Adams, guitarist Scott Ligon, bassist Casey McDonough and drummer John Perrin.
NRBQ released their self-titled debut in 1969, and toured and recorded consistently until their 35th anniversary in 2004, when they took a hiatus until 2011’s Keep This Love Goin’. After the release in recent years of High Noon — A 50 Year Retrospective, In • Frequencies (a rarities collection), the Happy Talk and April Showers EPs, the live Turn On, Tune In, and reissues of their eponymous debut album and All Hopped Up, NRBQ return with their first full-length since 2014.
In addition to their version of the Dragnet theme, the album contains 10 new original songs, all of which were written or co-written by the band, including Adams’ Sunflower, which was originally recorded for the 2018 film Change in the Air. According to Perrin: “I wanna give this album a great big hug. It was nothing but fun to make. On one song I even got to be a human clock, playing nothing but woodblocks.”
Adds McDonough: “The sessions for Dragnet were joyous, collaborative events. No idea was too far out. If someone wanted to try something, we did. Everyone was loose and relaxed, but focused. I believe our collective joy in playing together is palpable in these recordings. It’s also a solid combination of our various sensibilities meshing into one groovy thing.” Says Ligon: “We cut (Dragnet) a while back. And the very next night as we were walking onstage Terry whispered to me ‘…agnet.’ I turned to John and said, ‘Did he say magnet or Dragnet?’ Turns out he DID say Dragnet. We never played it live again. I think we forgot about it completely. But when we got back in the studio and heard a playback it sounded pretty good! Now it’s the title track!” The last word goes to founding member Adams: “The songs came out of nowhere … or at least somewhere nice. All of us are in there.”
Any release of NRBQ music is a cause for celebration, but after nearly a decade since their last full-length studio release, Dragnet brings the band back to the turntables and live venues of America. Though they don’t carry a badge, they are going to work, and after more than a year away from live performances, this is where they come in. So do your part and safely celebrate the release of Dragnet when they come to your city and in the meantime, duh duh-duh duh!”
