A concert CD and DVD, Live from Texas, recorded in Dallas in 2007 and featuring a still vital band, were both released in 2008. ZZ Top's support and link to the blues remains as rock solid as the music they play. The group members had it made into a guitar, dubbed the "Muddywood," then sent it out on tour to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum. They have continued to support the blues through various means, perhaps most visibly when they were given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, MS. The only rock & roll group that's out there with its original members still aboard after three decades (an anniversary celebrated on 1999's XXX), ZZ Top play music that is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful, and 100-percent American in derivation. As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom - both influenced by the originators of the form and British blues-rock guitarists like Peter Green - while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support. Becoming even more popular in the long run, they moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on, reducing their "message" to simple iconography. By their next album, Eliminator, and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to their patented grungy blues groove, giving their material a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented Texas style. Their third album (Tres Hombres) gained them national attention with the hit "La Grange," a signature riff tune to this day, based on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen." Their success continued unabated throughout the '70s, culminating with the year-and-a-half-long Worldwide Texas Tour.Įxhausted from the overwhelming workload, they took a three-year break, then switched labels and returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers of what was to come. Their first two albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humor of the band. They were formed in 1970 in and around Houston from rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and American Blues (Hill and Beard). This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums). 'Tejas' was accompanied by the year-long 'World Texas Tour,' a huge multi-media show that included live cattle on stage with the band.īilly Gibbons, vocals, guitar, fiddle, harmonica Musically, the album is somewhat more laid back than the band's previous more uptempo releases, as proven by such blues rockers as 'It's Only Love,' 'Arrested for Driving While Blind,' 'El Diablo,' and 'Snappy Kakkie.' The band would take an extended break from the recording studio after 'Tejas', not resurfacing again until 1979's 'Deguello'. The album kept ZZ near the top of the charts, as it embarked on its massive 'Worldwide Texas Tour' soon after the album's release (which included live animals as part of the stage's props!). After breaking through to the big time with its hit 1975 release 'Fandango'! (and its Top 40 single 'Tush'), ZZ Top returned to the studio and issued its fifth album, 'Tejas', one year later. They negotiated a switch to Warner Brothers, who put out their next album 'Deguello', and also bought their back catalog for re-issue. Drained by the tour, and unhappy with the support of their record label (London), they took a three-year break.
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