guitarist, singer (NRBQ)
21.11.1948 - 07.10.2009
Mr. Ferguson, a guitarist, singer and songwriter, was born in Louisville, and formed the original version of NRBQ there in 1967 with a high school friend, the keyboardist, singer and songwriter Terry Adams. (The name, short for New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, was inspired by a very different ensemble, the Modern Jazz Quartet.)
Ferguson kept to himself for the next two decades, playing occasional local gigs and sometimes collaborating with his former NRBQ bandmates. In 1991, he had his first high-profile project in over two decades, co-producing and writing much of Johnnie B. Bad, the debut solo album by Chuck Berry's piano player, Johnnie Johnson. Emboldened by the success of that project, Ferguson released his first solo record, Jack Salmon and Derby Sauce. That New Orleans-flavored album (which, amusingly, features a cover of the Liverpool Merseybeats' "I Stand Accused") featured Ferguson backed by his aptly named new group, the Midwest Creole Ensemble: guitarist Pat Lentz, keyboardist Keith Hubbard, bassist Robert Monk Mackey, and drummer Max Maxwell.
After touring behind Jack Salmon and Derby Sauce, Ferguson and the Midwest Creole Ensemble made the even-better Mama-U-Seapa, a good-timey country-voodoo-jazz record with guest appearances by Adams and fellow NRBQers Joey Spampinato and Tom Ardolino. In 1999, Ferguson and the Midwest Creole Ensemble released a smoking live album, Moho Criollo: Live at Air Devils Inn.
