NRBQ and The Baseball Project

The legendary NRBQ — founder and driving force Terry Adams on keyboards and vocals, Scott Ligon on guitar and vocals, Casey McDonough on bass and vocals, and Conrad Choucroun on drums —are known for their spontaneous, adventurous live performances in which they uniquely blend elements of rock, pop, blues, jazz and Tin Pan Alley. Originally founded in 1966, NRBQ (which stands for “New Rhythm and Blues Quartet”) continue to innovate and output some of their best work. The band released their latest studio album, the critically-acclaimed Brass Tacks, in the summer of 2014. “Brass Tacks contains the fun, zest, humor and flat-out rock that has defined the band since their birth decades ago,” said Rolling Stone in their online review, and, added Magnet, “…hats off to the NRBQ dynasty.”

Formed in 2007 by Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5, R.E.M.) and Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3, Gutterball), The Baseball Project began as a way for a couple of fans to pay musical tribute to our national pastime – and maybe score some free baseball tickets in the process. But The Baseball Project has since blossomed into a full-fledged, much-loved band in its own right, one which has included drummer Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3, Zuzu’s Petals) and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills, and one whose following and creativity has steadily grown with each release and tour. “We don’t have any rules about what constitutes a baseball song,” McCaughey explains. “It can be anything from a character study of an obscure guy from the 1920s, to something that just happened, to something completely ridiculous like ‘Extra Inning of Love,’ which takes the baseball-as-love metaphor and tries to stretch it as far as it will go. They can be fictional songs or non-fictional songs. The great thing with baseball is we’ll never run out of things to write about!”