ZZ Top will issue a new album, Raw, on July 22 via Shelter Records/BMG. The legendary Texas rockers also announced 2022 U.S. tour dates for their Raw Whisky Tour.
ZZ Top captured Raw during the filming for the Sam Dunn-directed, Grammy-nominated 2019 documentary That Little Ol’ Band From Texas. In the film, the band’s classic lineup of guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and late bassist Dusty Hill (Hill sadly died on July 29, 2021) convene for an intimate performance at the historic Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas described as the “the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas.” The career-spanning set the band delivered provided the basis for Raw and features performances of early material from the aptly named ZZ Top’s First Album as well as hits like “Legs,” “Tush,” “La Grange,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and more.
The album takes its name from the “unfettered and straightforward manner in which the tracks were recorded,” as per a press release. Gibbons and Beard detailed recording Raw, which is dedicated, “In righteous memory of Dusty Hill,” in the liner notes of 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 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.
Billy, Frank and bassist Elwood Francis — the band’s longtime guitar tech who took over for Hill as per his orders — are set to hit the road for the first leg of their Raw Whisky Tour beginning on May 27 in San Diego. Four more California dates will follow in Los Angeles, Pasos Robles, Redding and Saratoga’s picturesque Mountain Winery on June 2.
The trio will then swing through Oregon for two nights in Jacksonville and Bend ahead of two Washington dates in Walla Walla and Spokane. The tour will then hit Billings, Montana on June 12 before swinging south to Grand Junction, Colorado, Tucson, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Loveland, Colorado. The tour will make a stop in Grand Island, Nebraska on June 22 ahead of concerts in Park City, Kansas and Oklahoma City.
Two Arkansas dates include Rogers and Litte Rock before the band kicks off a Midwest stint on July 1 including Toledo, Ohio; Sterling Heights, Michigan; Fort Wayne, Indiana and Greenville, Wisconsin. Following a show in Boston on July 22, ZZ Top will hit Watertown, New York on July 23. The last date the band has on the books so far is Beaver Dam, Kentucky on August 27 with more dates to be announced.
Tickets for most markets on the Raw Whisky Tour go on sale Friday, March 11 at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets for many of the shows can be purchased through Ticketmaster.
Raw Tracklist:
- Brown Sugar
- Just Got Paid
- Heard It On The X
- La Grange
- Tush
- Thunderbird
- I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
- Gimme All Your Lovin’
- Blue Jean Blues
- Certified Blues
- Tube Snake Boogie
