This Friday, July 22 sees the release of RAW, a new album from the original line up of ZZ Top -- Billy F Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill -- created in a singular circumstance. The album, released through Shelter Records/BMG was recorded at Gruene Hall in Texas, in conjunction with the GRAMMY-nominated feature documentary ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas. The film’s director Sam Dunn sought a means to visually convey how the band made albums at its inception with all of three members in the same room at the same time.
The classic honky-tonk setting of Gruene Hall, established back in 1878, was chosen for an unfettered, roots-oriented recording session that is chronicled in the documentary. Released by Banger Films, the feature offers insight into the history of the band’s classic Gibbons/Beard/Hill incarnation.
The new album’s liner notes by Gibbons and Beard note of the RAW sessions, “..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 busses. Just us. 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!”
Gibbons commented, “The Director suggested we find a way to illustrate the early style from the start of our five plus decades run. Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, was selected as a fitting backdrop to replicate the look of the band’s very beginnings. When we arrived, we were surprised to see that all our gear had been transported there so, as cameras rolled, we picked up the instruments and commenced an unplanned jam session. Fortunately, our stage engineers were on hand with tape machines in place to capture the performances that went down. That became, in essence, the soundtrack to the film and now it’s also an audio document of ZZ Top’s early beginnings. Still going strong today.”
Gibbons continues, “Our director suggested going back to what it was like when we first started recording in our early days: the band in the studio together in a mostly unfettered way. We were quite comfortable in the room as heard on the tracks with that level of branded intimacy.”
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