Mescalero

ZZ Top: Bill F. Gibbons (vocals, guitar); Dusty Hill (vocals, bass); Frank Beard (drums).
Recorded at Foam Box Recordings, H-Town, Texas.
Still chugging along three decades after members of Houston garage bands the Moving Sidewalks and the American Blues united in 1970, this little ol' band from Texas makes its mark on 2003 with MESCALERO, the trio's first album in four years. As one of the first blues-rock power trios to fuse synthesizers with their straightforward brand of boogie, ZZ Top continues down this same path throughout these 16 songs. The difference is the Tex-Mex border brushed-on flavor, be it the bilingual title cut, the techno-mariachi that is the Spanish-sung "Que Lastima," or the Dia de Los Muertos-inspired cover art. Also present and accounted for is the group's salacious sense of humor, which is readily apparent in the straightforward shuffle "Buck Nekkid" and equally rocked-out "Piece." Longtime fans of Memphis soul best known for their cover of Sam & Dave's "I Thank You," ZZ Top returns to the Stax/Volt canon for a crack at Lowell Fulsom's "Tramp," which is given a quirky reading thanks to the use of a filter on the vocals. Also tacked onto the last track is an uncredited cover of "As Time Goes By," sung by a gravelly sounding Billy Gibbons over slack-key-inspired guitar accompaniment.