ZZ Top
Tres Hombres

THE REVIEW

Third and most important album of the trio with the long beards. In 33 minutes and 35 masterful seconds, Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard deliver 10 tracks that define the sound and spirit of the group.

Joys and pains, this album: "La Grange" the best track on the album, the first of the group to enter the charts, costs the bearded trio a lawsuit from a John Lee Hooker record executive for "a certain similarity" with "Boogie Chillen." Although they win the case, the trio comes out a bit bruised on the image front. But what a track, folks! A brief almost spoken introduction, then off with a typically blues sound in the sequence of the three chords and the bass line leading to a tight solo. The record opens effectively with the riff "Waiting For The Bus", a simple and direct bluesy tune with a nice harmonica passage that turns into a guitar solo with Gibbons' quite distinctive timbre. There's no time to catch your breath: a nice change of pace and voilà, the track becomes "Jesus Just Left Chicago" as in a sort of medley. "Jesus has left Chicago and is headed towards New Orleans/ He dived into the Mississippi, and its murky waters turned into wine." A slight change of course leads to the southern rock of "Beer Drinker & Hell Risers", a track with a title that says it all. Voices call and respond over a solid rhythm with a recognizable timbre. If half of the track is made of "call and response," the other half features Gibbons' effective and direct solos, just so you don't get lost. Next comes "Master of Sparks", with a sound that anticipates a bit, solos aside, that "El Diablo" which will be the gem of the next album "Tejas". The track, although excellent, seems to fade a bit after the previous "Beer Drinker & Hell Risers". Time for a ballad: "Hot Blue And Righteous" leaves much more room for the vocals than for the guitars. Solo as per tradition, again vocals, then it's up to "Move Me On Down The Line" to pick up the album's pace, which through the peculiar sound of "Precious And Grace", heads towards the gem... "La Grange": "Rumors are spreading all over Texas/ They talk about a little house out there/ La Grange/ You know what I’m talking about/ Tell me you want to go to that house in the vast countryside/ There are lots of people and beautiful women." The theme is clear and typically blues. The calmer "Sheik" and "Have you Heard" close with cleaner-sounding guitars than usual. If Lynyrds are the part of southern rock closer to rock, ZZ Top are more towards blues and demonstrate that you don't need to be black to create great blues. Many are the fans of ZZ Top, who, while maintaining their primitive love for blues-rock, in more recent years have shifted a bit towards electronic.

I still consider "Tres Hombres" their most successful album.