Rio Grande Mud

• Artist: ZZ Top
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1972
• Total Time: 40:51
• Genre: Rock

Review

With their second album, Rio Grande Mud, ZZ Top uses the sound they sketched out on their debut as a blueprint, yet they tweak it in slight but important ways. The first difference is the heavier, more powerful sound, turning the boogie guitars into a locomotive force. There are slight production flares that date this as a 1972 record, but for the most part, this is a straight-ahead, dirty blues-rock difference. Essentially like the first album, then. That's where the second difference comes in -- they have a much better set of songs this time around, highlighted by the swaggering shuffle "Just Got Paid," the pile-driving boogie "Bar-B-Q," the slide guitar workout "Apologies to Pearly," and two Dusty Hill-sung numbers, "Francine" and "Chevrolet." There are still a couple of tracks that don't quite gel and their fuzz-blues still can sound a little one-dimensional at times, but Rio Grande Mud is the first flowering of ZZ Top as a great, down-n-dirty blooze rock band. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Francine	Billy Gibbons, Marty Cordray	ZZ Top	(3:33)
Just Got Paid	Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham	ZZ Top	(4:49)
Mushmouth Shoutin'	Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham	ZZ Top	(3:41)
Ko Ko Blue	Frank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill	ZZ Top	(4:56)
Chevrolet	Billy Gibbons	ZZ Top	(3:47)
Apologies to Pearly	Frank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham, Dusty Hill	ZZ Top	(2:39)
Bar-B-Q	Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham	ZZ Top	(3:34)
Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell	Billy Gibbons	ZZ Top	(7:39)
Whiskey'n Mama	Frank Beard, Billy Gibbons, Bill Ham, Dusty Hill	ZZ Top	(3:20)
Down Brownie	Billy Gibbons	ZZ Top	(2:53)

Credits

ZZ Top (Main Performer), Frank Beard (Drums), Billy Gibbons (Guitar), Billy Gibbons (Harmonica), Billy Gibbons (Vocals), Billy Gibbons (Slide Guitar), Bill Ham (Producer), Dusty Hill (Bass), Dusty Hill (Guitar (Bass)), Dusty Hill (Vocals), Pete Tickle (Guitar), Robin Brian (Engineer)

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