Billy F. Gibbons
The Paramount
The Big Bad Blues Tour
Huntington, NY
October 28, 2018
Article By Mike Perciaccante | Photographs By Christine Connallon
Jimi Hendrix said that Billy Gibbons was “America’s best young guitar player” during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That’s high praise and some pretty heady stuff.
Gibbons is best known as the lead guitarist for ZZ Top and for his trademark flowing beard. For the past forty-seven years, since the release of that band’s first album in 1971, Gibbons has been delivering blistering guitar leads, riffs and runs on ZZ Top’s signature blues, boogie-woogie, hard rock, barrelhouse, Southern rock, heavy metal, new wave, punk, and synth-rock tunes. These songs include: “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” “Tush,” “La Grange,” “Waitin’ for the Bus” and “Jesus Just Left Chicago.” During the course of his career with ZZ Top, Gibbons has recorded multiple gold and platinum records, received numerous MTV Video Award nominations and wins and won Grammy Awards in 1984 and 1987. Gibbons was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 1993.
On a cool Sunday night in late October, Gibbons, touring behind his latest solo recording The Big Bad Blues(Concord Records, 2018), along with drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist/bassist Austin Hanks blew the roof off of Huntington, NY’s, the Paramount. Gibbons latest solo CD pays homage to the lowdown and dirty blues made famous and released by the classic labels like Chess, Excello, Delmark, Cobra, Bluesville and Arhoolie. This concert did exactly that.