One of the many ZZ Top albums I’ve worn out over the decades.
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill has finally bottomed out.
According to the band’s website, Dusty shuffled off in his sleep at home in Houston. He was 72.
Dusty, Billy Gibbons, and Frank Beard helped keep me between the lines on many a long road trip over the years, pounding on the steering wheel and singing along. Now he’s up there jamming with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Guy Clark and the rest of them hombres.
’Scuse me while I crank up some “La Grange,” y’all.
Tags: Dusty Hill, ZZ Top
Mad Blog Media 
July 28, 2021 at 2:16 pm |
that’s a bummer. i might have to dig out deguello this evening for my guitar practice session.
July 28, 2021 at 2:35 pm |
Hi Carl. What music and guitars do you like?
July 28, 2021 at 2:44 pm |
i bought a fender squire telecaster for my birthday. i haven’t played an electric guitar since probably 1995 and it shows. i’ve got a fender headphone amp that i use so i don’t annoy the girlfriend. the amp connects by bluetooth to my phone and i have a small playlist for guitar stuff i find interesting. i’m trying to avoid downloading tab charts so i can figure things out on my own. it’s been fun so far and my hand and fingers have toughened up a bit. the band blitzen trapper has got some really nice chord progressions that have been a challenge. the song american goldwing is giving me fits. i’ll post up my playlist when i get more time.
July 28, 2021 at 5:52 pm |
That’s great. I have decided acoustic is what I should stick with. I’m a chord strummer that lives on the “Chordie” website. If I have lyrics and chords, plus a recording of the song, I can usually figure it out. We are playing some John Prine, John Denver, Tom Paxton, Doc Watson, and others. We are going to see Tommy Emmanuel in November in Tucson. My guitar mentor, Alan, is a finger style player. I just play rhythm and sit sit back and listen when he starts picking’.
July 29, 2021 at 7:10 am |
Kinda crazy that one instrument can give us Jimi Hendrix and Ottmar Liebert, Paul Simon and James Hetfield.
July 29, 2021 at 6:43 am |
my parents made me take guitar lessons way back in elementary school. i learned a bit of classical and folk stuff so i learned a bit about finger picking. not enough to be any good but enough to have the coordination. it blows my mind to see people finger pick and sing at the same time.
July 29, 2021 at 6:58 am |
Last show I saw Pre-COVID was Justine Townes Earle, with the Michigan Rattlers opening. My uninformed impression is JTE was a solid musician, but not on anyone’s Top 100 list. But when he slipped into Travis picking claw hammer mode, I really had no idea what I was listening to, or watching, really. My brain just couldn’t process how different things were going on there.
OBTW, the Rattlers could easily be a Jayhawks- or Big Head Todd-level success story with just a couple of breaks somewhere, one of those solids bands with maybe one or two hits who makes a decent living over the arc of their career. It’s always perplexed me how much talent is out there traveling and yet the masses are force fed over-produced crap.
July 29, 2021 at 7:03 am
wilco: the late greats
The greatest lost track of all time
The Late Greats’ Turpentine
You can’t hear it on the radio
Can’t hear it anywhere you go
The best band will never get signed
The Kay-Settes starring Butchers Blind
So good you won’t ever know
They never even played a show
Can’t hear them on the radio
The greatest singer in rock ‘n’ roll
Would have to be Romeo
His vocal cords are made of gold
He just looks a little too old
The best songs will never get sung
The best life never leaves your lungs
So good you won’t ever know
You’ll never hear it on the radio
Can’t hear it on the radio
July 29, 2021 at 7:12 am
Word, Carl.
July 29, 2021 at 7:15 am
Loved this look at Tweedy’s process. Dude is definitely a capital-A artist but there’s a lot of “blue collar, roll up your sleeves and get to work” that makes it all happen.
https://overcast.fm/+EwEycIF58
“ Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”
~ Chuck Close
July 29, 2021 at 7:17 am
Also here if the Overcast link doesn’t work for ya:
https://songexploder.net/wilco
July 29, 2021 at 7:27 am |
A discussion on finger picking would not be complete without this guy.
July 29, 2021 at 9:47 am
that was one of the songs i learned when i first started playing although there’s very little resemblance between my version and the mason williams version.
July 31, 2021 at 1:43 am
Wow! I’ve not had the chance to see anyone play that song before and that was great. But why did they have to speed up the video. I mean we all know that nobody can play that fast…
July 28, 2021 at 2:33 pm |
Dusty Hill and Donald “Duck” Dunn can anchor any band the rest of them there can put together.
July 28, 2021 at 4:29 pm |
What longevity in that band. It may have been Dusty who said that the key to their success in holding the band together was “separate buses.”
Bob Seger was another dude who kept me moving forward when my eyes were out on stalks and the beer was mostly failing to dial back the acid/cocaine/speed or whatever between Hell and High Water. He had a couple real good movers.
July 29, 2021 at 7:16 am |
1969 was a very good year for music! It got me interested in music after years of indifference. Santana, BS&T, CTA, James Taylor, Carol King, and on and on got me buying and listening.
July 28, 2021 at 7:12 pm |
Hard to believe how much great music they put out. Saw them twice.
July 28, 2021 at 7:50 pm |
I never saw them, but I bought a few albums. “Degüello,” “Tres Hombres,” “Tejas,” and “El Loco.” And I watched the Netflix doc, too.
July 28, 2021 at 8:03 pm |
Here ya go, musicians and guitarists! I stumbled upon this You Tube website and can’t believe this Lithuanian-born, musical wizard’s talents and virtuosity.
Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/c/DovydasMusic/videos
July 29, 2021 at 7:17 am |
I’ve watched some of his stuff. Great busking and he can work a crowd.
July 29, 2021 at 11:39 am |
Here’s my cousin Joe Thompson playing some baroque bits with James Bishop-Edwards. Dude knows his way around a fretboard.
July 29, 2021 at 12:48 pm |
You ain’t kidding! Los of nicely done tunes on that website. My buddy Alan is from Santa Cruz. I’ll ask him if he has met them.
July 29, 2021 at 2:10 pm |
Speaking of Texas musicians, The Flatlanders have a new album out, their first in a dozen years.
July 29, 2021 at 2:41 pm |
The last song on that album is “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” a tune Alan and I do. Our favorite covers of that are by Doc Watson and Hubert Sumlin. I like this one too.
July 30, 2021 at 6:37 am |
i made the tumeric-black pepper chicken dish you posted the other day. easy and tasty. next time i’ll follow the instructions a little closer but i still got praise from the girlfriend. thanks!
July 30, 2021 at 7:15 am |
That’s a good one, iddn’t it? I like serving it with arroz verde from Tejal Rao. It’s good as a soft taco in fresh flour tortillas, too.
July 30, 2021 at 7:44 am |
Happy Birthday, Buddy Guy!
https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-july-30-2021/
July 30, 2021 at 7:45 am |
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/stream-buddy-guy-blues-chase-blues-away-documentary/17954/
July 30, 2021 at 8:07 am |
i’m gonna watch that this weekend.
July 30, 2021 at 10:47 am |
Most excellent use of ones time!
July 31, 2021 at 11:33 am |
We watched the Chuck Berry special last night. He had similar Chicago connections, Chess Records and Muddy Waters, but was an independent spirit artistically, socially, and financially. An excellent program in the “In Their Own Words” series.
July 30, 2021 at 9:19 am |
Watched it last night. It was very interesting, especially the Chicago connection and the White House gig. There is also a PBS Chuck Berry special that we will watch tonight.
July 31, 2021 at 12:23 pm |
Whenever someone asks me for a favor or tries to pay me for something I did for them I simply say “ just sing me a few verses of My Dingaling “. Which ultimately leads them to Mr. Barry vids. No they rarely break out in song for me but they do get a quirky music history lesson.
July 31, 2021 at 12:31 pm |
Good morning Herb! It was a great program. I didn’t know that Chuck punched Keith Richards in the eye for touching Chuck’s guitar without asking first.
July 31, 2021 at 1:11 pm |
Never touch another feller’s guitar. Nor his hat neither.
July 31, 2021 at 9:26 pm |
But if someone does take your hat, Lyle will tell you to head over to Greeley and see his friend Trent for a new one.
https://www.americancowboy.com/ranch-life-archive/hats-greeley-hat-works