ZZ Top to Release New Live LP, “Raw”

The infamous Texas rock trio ZZ Top has announced that it will soon release a new 11-song live album from the band’s 2019 performance at Gruene Hall, which is known as the oldest continually run dance hall in the Lone Star State.

The new live record, Raw, is set to drop on July 22. It features the band’s original lineup of Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, and the late Dusty “The Dust” Hill. The album comes in conjunction with the 2019 ZZ Top Netflix documentary, That Little Ol’Band From Texas.

Said Gibbons and Beard in the album’s liner notes (via Guitar World): Raw is “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 busses. 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.”

ZZ Top has also announced an upcoming North American tour. For dates, tickets, and more information, check out ZZ Top’s website. And see the upcoming live album’s tracklisting below.

The band, who also recently sold their “entire music interests” to BMG and KKR for $50 million, shared the tour news on Twitter, writing, “ZZ Top announces Leg 1 of their 2022 US Tour! Tickets are on sale Friday, March 11th. Go to https://fal.cn/3mJPN for more info.”

ZZ Top Raw track list:

1. Brown Sugar
2. Just Got Paid
3. Heard It On The X
4. La Grange
5. Tush
6. Thunderbird 
7. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
8. Gimme All Your Lovin’
9. Blue Jean Blues
10. Certified Blues
11. Tube Snake Boogie

Photo by Frank Hoensch/Redferns