Great guitarist and founder of one of my favorite bands of all time, NRBQ!!! RIP Fergie!!!
Hoist!
Steve Ferguson, whose intensely rhythmic and intricate guitar playing earned him an international reputation in blues and rock 'n' roll circles, died Wednesday at his Louisville home of cancer. He was 60.
Ferguson, born in Louisville's Clarksdale housing project, had a career that spanned more than 40 years and half a dozen albums. Although he wandered freely, Ferguson lived primarily in Louisville for most of his adult life and was for years a presence on the local music scene with his band, Steve Ferguson and the Midwest Creole Ensemble.
Robert “Monk” Mackey was Ferguson's bassist for more than 20 years and knew him for 35.
“It was such a treat to work with him,” Mackey said. “He was a great player, a great songwriter. He was like an older brother to me, really. He was just a gift, really amazing.”
Ferguson, called “Fergie,” was perhaps best known as a co-founder of NRBQ with keyboardist Terry Adams. The high school friends had teen bands in Louisville before leaving in 1967 for Miami, Fla., where they joined forces with cast-offs from a band called Story of Us to form the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet, later amended to NRBQ.
Ferguson recorded two albums with NRBQ, “NRBQ” and “Boppin' the Blues,” before leaving in 1970. His replacement, “Big Al” Anderson, has frequently cited Ferguson as a major influence.
He reunited with NRBQ several times, and in 2006 he and Adams made an album together called “Louisville Sluggers.” He also contributed songs, guitar and vocals to “Johnnie B. Bad,” an album by pianist Johnnie Johnson, performing on one song with Keith Richards and Eric Clapton.
But it was Ferguson's solo albums that best showed off his remarkable combination of styles, eras and influences. “Jack Salmon and Derby Sauce” (1992), “Mama U-Seapa” (1995) and two live albums, “Moho Criollo“ (1999) and “Two Dollar No Holler” (2001), were an intoxicating mix of early rock 'n' roll, blues, Creole rhythms, soul and rhythm and blues that defied easy description.
In concert, Ferguson was a master at building an inexorable groove, often leading the Midwest Creole Ensemble on long improvisations that left the audience happily exhausted.
“A lot of people play the same thing every night but he played everything differently every night,” Mackey said. “I messed up sometimes because I would start listening to him and get lost.”
Pat Lentz played with Ferguson off and on for 30 years and said that seeing him perform in the early 1970s inspired him to take up guitar.
“You had to learn a different kind of music to play with Steve; it was Fergie music,” Lentz said. “I think he took everything he ever liked in music and kept it all in his head. He was a genius to me.”
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Topic: Louisville Musician Steve Ferguson Dies (Read 515 times)