ZZ Top Tejas CD

ZZ Top: Billy Gibbons (vocals, guitar, fiddle, harmonica); Dusty Hill (vocals, bass); Frank Beard (drums).
TEJAS was accompanied by the year-long "World Texas Tour," a huge multi-media show that included live cattle on stage with the band. The widely reported tour broke ticket sale and attendance records.
Drained by the tour, and unhappy with the support of their record label (London), they took a three-year break. They negotiated a switch to Warner Brothers, who put out their next album (DEGUELLO), and also bought their back catalog for re-issue.
Also available as part of the ZZ Top 6 pack.
ZZ Top was riding high in the mid-'70s on the strength of Tres Hombres and Fandango, but they were starting to run out of steam by 1977's Tejas. Its predecessor was padded with a live side, but even if it was close to padding, it was still enjoyable. Tejas, despite sounding pretty good, is just forgettable. It has the patented, propulsive ZZ boogie, but none of the songs are particularly memorable, even if the whole thing sounds pretty good as it's playing. ZZ Top and their label, London, must have noticed this too, since even though the album went gold, they followed it months later with The Best of ZZ Top, which contained none of the songs from this album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
On Tejas, ZZ Top countrified the bluesy posture of their previous albums, resulting in a slight detour between the madcap spirit of Fandango and the psychedelic strut of Deguello. While the album lacks any singles as strong as "Tush" or "La Grange," "Arrested for Driving While Blind" is one of ZZ's classic anthems, capturing the group's wacky humor and jaunty good-time boogie. Other highlights include the driving "Enjoy and Get It On," "Avalon Hideaway," and the fine instrumental "Asleep in the Desert." However, like all of their early albums, the CD transfer is spoiled by overdubbing and other lame attempts to update (and, in some cases, extend) the original songs, and it much better on vinyl. ~ Jim Smith
After breaking through to the big time with its hit 1975 release FANDANGO! (and its Top 40 single "Tush"), ZZ Top returned to the studio and issued its fifth album, TEJAS, one year later. The album kept ZZ near the top of the charts, as it embarked on its massive "Worldwide Texas Tour" soon after the album's release (which included live animals as part of the stage's props!).
Musically, the album is somewhat more laid back than the band's previous more uptempo releases, as proven by such blues rockers as "It's Only Love," "Arrested for Driving While Blind," "El Diablo," and "Snappy Kakkie." The band would take an extended break from the recording studio after TEJAS, not resurfacing again until 1979's DEGUELLO.