Tom Staley

NRBQ fans familiar with the band's early history will undoubtedly remember Tom Staley, the band's powerhouse drummer until the mid-'70s. Staley was there for those first few albums, including the almighty self-titled 1969 debut , 1972's Scraps, '73's Workshop and Boppin' The Blues, the band's collaborative effort with rockabilly legend Carl Perkins. Here's where the plot thickens: In 1974, after leaving the Q, Staley reconnected with two other ex-members, guitarist Steve Ferguson and singer Frank Gadler, in a new band they called the Sacred Frowns. They recorded one album for Capricorn Records that remained unreleased and then disappeared. Staley and that band's bassist, Rick Harper, have worked together on and off since the Sacred Frowns, and both have made music with others. Thenceforward reunites them, and it's every bit as wonderful as those first few NRBQ discs. Thenceforward should, in fact, expand the reputation of both musicians exponentially, because it's an eminently enjoyable slab of pop-rock stuffed with hook upon grabber hook, glistening melodies galore, inspired playing and, more than anything, super songs. Staley and Harper alternate the composing (they share no writing credits), and the tracks are split between those featuring just the pair of them handling all instruments and those that augment with other musicians. Staley proves to be an inventive guitarist and keyboardist as well as remaining a world-class skin-pounder, and Harper's superb pop craftsmanship is fleshed out luminously with his own guitar and keyboard work, in addition to his insistent bass. Fans of shimmering pop along the lines of Crowded House and Squeeze will take readily to Harper's magisterial "Rhino In The Room" and Staley's "Waiting" and "Brand New Day," while opening track "Inside Out" juxtaposes a crisp quasi-rockabilly guitar over layered harmonies and a relentlessly driving backbeat. "Time Bomb," another scorching Staley tune, puts its autobiographical words inside of a solid Dave Edmunds-like rocker, and Staley's "Mr. Suit" is an ominous topical plaint that offsets the more upbeat tone of the album with a few timely words of warning. Some will undoubtedly want only to know the answer to one question: Does Thenceforward sound like NRBQ? The answer: yes and no. Enough so that it's difficult to imagine any Q fan not embracing it, but different enough that it's clearly an original creation by these two talented cohorts. ~ Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide