Rio Grande Mud (Remastered) ZZ Top

• 1 Francene 03:32
• 2 Just Got Paid 04:27
• 3 Mushmouth Shoutin 03:45
• 4 Ko Ko Blue 04:32
• 5 Chevrolet 03:20
• 6 Apologies To Pearly 02:45
• 7 Bar-B-Q 03:26
• 8 Sure Got Cold After The Rain Fell 07:18
• 9 Whiskey'n Mama 03:19
• 10 Down Brownie 02:26
• Total Runtime 38:50

Info for Rio Grande Mud (Remastered)

The album is best known as home to the longtime concert favorite 'Just Got Paid,' which features a particularly thrilling slide guitar showcase from Billy Gibbons.

'ZZ Top’s First Album' — yes, that’s what they called it — hadn’t made much of an impression on the charts when it came out the year before, but ‘Mud”s lead track, 'Francine,' which featured vocals from bassist Dusty Hill, made a bit of a dent, becoming their first charting single. (Things would really bust open for the group with 1973′s 'Tres Hombres.'

“Rio Grande Mud” is very reminiscent of British electric blues and sizzling with boogie and blues-rock. Nine of the songs on this album were written completely by the band members, with producer Bill Ham adding his help on 5 songs. The opening song on the album, “Francine”, was written with the assistance of Kenny Cordray and Steve Perron, both of whom are the embodiment of deep southern blues and excellent song writers. “Francine” was the only single to be released from this album, and managed to reach #69 on the pop charts, making this song ZZ Top’s first hit. Pretty impressive for a band that was still unknown throughout the USA.

“Rio Grande Mud” sticks to the dirty southern blues style, but has been tweaked just a tad over the debut album. This album has heavier and more powerful guitar playing ,with some incredible slide work on “Just Got Paid” and “Apologies to Pearly”, both songs are candy to my ears. For the most part, the song writing on “Rio Grande Mud” sticks to the old blues style riffs but no one can deliver those riffs like Gibbons. This album is another forgotten album by ZZ Top, but I highly recommend it to anybody who likes some good ole southern boogie and blues-rock.

Billy Gibbons, guitar, vocals and harmonica
Dusty Hill, bass and vocals
Frank Beard, drums and percussion
Pete Tickle, acoustic guitar (on 'Mushmouth Shoutin'')

Engineered by Robin Brian
Produced by Bill Ham

ZZ Top
This sturdy American blues-rock trio from Texas consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums). They were formed in 1970 in and around Houston from rival bands the Moving Sidewalks (Gibbons) and American Blues (Hill and Beard). Their first two albums reflected the strong blues roots and Texas humor of the band. Their third album (Tres Hombres) gained them national attention with the hit "La Grange," a signature riff tune to this day, based on John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen." Their success continued unabated throughout the '70s, culminating with the year-and-a-half-long Worldwide Texas Tour.

Exhausted from the overwhelming workload, they took a three-year break, then switched labels and returned to form with Deguello and El Loco, both harbingers of what was to come. By their next album, Eliminator, and its worldwide smash follow-up, Afterburner, they had successfully harnessed the potential of synthesizers to their patented grungy blues groove, giving their material a more contemporary edge while retaining their patented Texas style. Now sporting long beards, golf hats, and boiler suits, they met the emerging video age head-on, reducing their "message" to simple iconography. Becoming even more popular in the long run, they moved with the times while simultaneously bucking every trend that crossed their path. As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers; Gibbons is one of America's finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom — both influenced by the originators of the form and British blues-rock guitarists like Peter Green — while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.

The only rock & roll group that's out there with its original members still aboard after three decades (an anniversary celebrated on 1999's XXX), ZZ Top play music that is always instantly recognizable, eminently powerful, profoundly soulful, and 100-percent American in derivation. They have continued to support the blues through various means, perhaps most visibly when they were given a piece of wood from Muddy Waters' shack in Clarksdale, MS. The group members had it made into a guitar, dubbed the "Muddywood," then sent it out on tour to raise money for the Delta Blues Museum. ZZ Top's support and link to the blues remains as rock solid as the music they play. A concert CD and DVD, Live from Texas, recorded in Dallas in 2007 and featuring a still vital band, were both released in 2008. The Rick Rubin and Gibbons-produced La Futura, the band's 15th studio album, and the group's first new studio outing since 2003's Mescalero, appeared in 2012.

This album contains no booklet.