ZZ Top Announces New Live Album

Photo Credit: RKH Images

ZZ Top have a new album on the way.

Titled RAW, it was recorded in connection with their 2019 Netflix documentary, That Little Ol’ Band From Texas.

In the film you see Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and the late Dusty Hill gathering for a very intimate session at Gruene Hall, “the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas.” That performance provided the basis for the RAW album release.

The album’s title is derived from the straightforward manner in which the tracks were recorded. As seen in the film, the band members played, for the most part, together within sight of each other in the course of one day.

Its 12 tracks recall the very beginning of the band’s recording career — “Brown Sugar” and “Certified Blues” from ZZ Top’s First Album — and includes many of their major hits such as “Legs,” “Tush,” “LaGrange,” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” along with “Blue Jean Blues,” “Just Got Paid,” “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide,” “Tube Snake Boogie” and “Thunderbird.”

Gibbons and Beard wrote the liner notes, which explain the approach to the album. “It was, in a very real way, a return to our roots. Just us and the music, no audience of thousands, no concession stands, no parking lot social hour, no phalanx of tour buses. Just us and the music.

“We knew right then it was a very special circumstance, all of us in the same place at the same time and what a time it most certainly was!

“It was as bare bones as when we first started touring in a behemoth Chrysler station wagon, driving vast stretches between those early far-flung shows under blackened Texas skies and first hearing our records on the radio. We were bonded as brothers.

“‘The Dust’ may have left the building but he’s still very much with us.”

RAW, which is dedicated to Hill, will be released on July 22nd on CD and vinyl, and through digital platforms.

Raw (July 22)