NRBQ have frequently been described as "America's Greatest Bar Band," but that says a bit more about their draw than the music they play. Active since 1966,
NRBQ play music that fuses rock & roll, jazz of all stripes, vintage rhythm & blues, classic pop, country, standards, polkas, and anything else that strikes their fancy on a given night.
NRBQ love to entertain, but despite the abundant joy and engaging melodies that pour out of their performances, there's nothing simple or easily classifiable about their work, which is why they play beer joints more often than more prestigious venues.
High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective is a five-disc set that celebrates the half-century since
NRBQ first started making music, and it takes the time to embrace the group's body of work in all its marvelous complexity. In
John DeAngelis' liner notes, he compares
NRBQ to the
Duke Ellington and
Count Basie bands, and the metaphor is apt; while pianist, songwriter, and idea man
Terry Adams has always been at the center of their music,
NRBQ have been through plenty of transitions of personnel and outlook, and
High Noon allows all of the different editions of the band to have their places in the timeline, reveling in their differences as well as their commonalities. The set opens with a disc covering the most recent chapter in
NRBQ's story, music
Adams has made with new collaborators since 2005 (after the band briefly went on hiatus), and then jumps backward to the group's earliest days, eventually making its way to 2004 at the end of disc five. En route,
High Noon delivers a delightfully exhaustive history of the band, sampling nearly all of
NRBQ's albums and lineups while folding in unreleased cuts, live tracks, and alternate takes that will give even the most zealous fans something new to enjoy. Plenty of box sets play like overgrown greatest-hits albums, but
High Noon aims for something more ambitious and important. Compiler
Cheryl Pawelski has instead curated a collection that makes a strong case for
NRBQ's place in the pantheon in American popular music, honoring their eclecticism and sophistication as well as their deep sense of fun. Even if you've been listening to the band for years,
High Noon dazzles in its depth, and if this might seem daunting to a beginner, it's hard to imagine folks who love music at all not finding something here that will make them smile and tap their feet. In short, it's a box set just as special as
NRBQ themselves. ~ Mark Deming
![The Very Best Of [2003]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227397128_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "The Very Best Of [2003]")
