ZZ Top’s “Raw” is as close to being an accidental album as it gets.
The album is drawn from a session at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, in which singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard played versions of such familiar songs as “La Grange,” “Tush,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Legs” in the most live, spontaneous and basic setting possible.
The performances were filmed for use in the recent ZZ Top documentary “That Little Ol’ Band from Texas,” celebrating the band’s 50-year history with its classic lineup. That was supposed to be it.
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“The tunes on that occasion unfolded quite in the moment,” Gibbons said, recalling the session in an email interview. “Our director, Sam (Dunn), wanted a sequence where we played in the present day as a balance to the film’s historical narrative. We got in there and did what we did and later, much later, realized we had an album.”
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As Gibbons indicated, upon further review, the performances captured something worth hearing in its entirety — the unmistakable Texas blues-rock boogie of ZZ Top in its most authentic state. And the “Raw” album became a reality.
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The album provides one of the last live documents of ZZ Top with Hill, who died in July 2021. A hip injury had prevented Hill from joining Gibbons and Beard for the previous summer’s tour, so longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis stepped in on bass. When Hill died, the band barely took time off before resuming the tour, knowing that’s what Hill would have wanted.
The band comes Saturday to the new Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs and will be joined by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Gibbons believes ZZ Top still has plenty to say musically. He’s hinted that an album of new material could happen.
“Elwood is certainly in with us for the long haul,” Gibbons said. “It’s still ZZ Top, not ZZ Top 2 or ZZ Top with an asterisk. The genuine article abides!”
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Publish date : 2024-09-26 03:15:00
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