A to Z Challenge - 2016

We made it to the end of the A to Z Challenge! I am so excited that I actually completed one whole challenge.  I think having the Sunday's off made it a lot easier because I could use those days to catch up on reading other participant's blogs and write some of my own if I needed to.  It also helped to pick a theme I was comfortable with and have the ideas for each letter picked out in advance (at least most of them).  I want to thank all the kind people who stopped by during the challenge and left me comments.  It definitely kept me going knowing that there might actually be someone reading what I was scribbling about.

So, Z is for...

ZZ-Top!

Dusty Hill (bass guitar) Billy Gibbons (guitar and lead vocals) and Frank Beard (drums) have been together for more than 45 years!  They started as a group in 1969 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.





Interesting that Dusty and Billy are well known for their beards and yet Frank Beard only sports a mustache at the most.


We saw them at Shoreline in 2010.  There were three groups playing that day.  The opening act was .38 Special and we felt that they should have been the second group because there was hardly anyone in the stands that early and we felt it affected their performance.  Plus, the group they had playing second was some kind of heavy metal band.  I don't even remember the name and we didn't even stay to watch them but roamed around the grounds until it was time for ZZ Top.

ZZ puts on a great show and they do a bit of synchronized playing which is pretty neat.  

They used the screen behind them very effectively and showed clips of some of their videos from the MTV era...

Legs

Jimi Hendrix

 and played tribute to Jimi Hendrix, who they said was a great influence on them.

 When it was time for Sharp Dressed Men, they put on jackets with tons of sequins that lit up.  Their microphone poles changed colors as well.  

Eliminator is my favorite album of theirs as it has the songs Sharp Dressed Man, Legs and Gimme All Your Lovin.

They will be performing at the Mountain Winery this year but we did not get tickets to see them, although they were on the short list.  They were a bit more expensive than we wanted to pay.  I did just read, while doing some background for this, that Billy Gibbons broke his shoulder earlier this month going up the stairs to one of their shows so they have had to cancel some performances until he recovers.  I hope it is soon!

And there you have it!!! I actually made it to the end of the challenge in one piece!  Again, thanks to the organizers for giving us all the opportunity to share our blogs and for encouraging us along the way.  Thank you most to those of you who have stopped by on occasion to leave a message and I definitely have found some new blogs to follow by visiting yours.  I already have an idea for the next A to Z so I will be back next year!!!