Ravinia_2018_Week

ZZ TOP

Having maintained its lineup for over 40 years,

ZZ Top is a unique force in the music world.

Since the release of

ZZ Top’s First Album

1971, Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Dusty Hill

have worked to keep their growling, blues-in-

flected rock fresh, breaking into national con-

sciousness with 1973’s

Tres Hombres

, their first

of many top-10 records, and the hit single “La

Grange.” Half the tracks for the 1975 follow-up

Fandango!

were recorded on the

Hombres

tour,

showcasing the energy of ZZ Top’s live shows,

and the studio tracks included the group’s next

hit single, “Tush,” which made number 20 on

Billboard

’s Hot 100. After the “Worldwide Texas

Tour” in support of

Tejas

(1976), the band went

on a brief hiatus to travel the world as tourists

rather than musicians, returning with their

now-iconic beards, a new record deal, and

De-

güello

(1979) and

El Loco

(1981). Those top-25

albums were harbingers of the great things to

come with 1983’s

Eliminator

, which fully inte-

grated synthesizers into the group’s sound. The

worldwide smash-hit singles “Gimme All Your

Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” and “Legs,” each a

top-10 rock hit in the United States, drove the al-

bum to achieve diamond-level sales.

Afterburner

continued that success in 1985, reaching number

four at home and claiming multiple top spots

overseas, also producing the rock-chart-topping

singles “Stages” and “Sleeping Bag,” as well as

“Rough Boy,” which won an MTV Video Mu-

sic Award. In 1990 ZZ Top began to reclaim its

guitar-driven sound on

Recycler

, earning high

marks on the rock charts with “Doubleback”

and “Give It Up.”

Antenna

(1994),

Rhythmeen

(1996), and

XXX

(1999) kept the group at the

fore of rock music with songs like “Pincush-

ion,” “Breakaway,” and “What’s Up with That,”

leading to ZZ Top’s induction into the Rock and

Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Not resting on those

laurels, the group released

La Futura

in 2012, its

first top-10 studio album since

Recycler

, and a

greatest-hits compilation of live performances

in 2016. ZZ Top made its Ravinia debut in 2015.

RYAN KINDER

Growing up in Birmingham, AL, Ryan Kinder

first dreamed of playing baseball, but after fall-

ing under the spell of music by the likes of John

Mayer and Keith Urban, he decided that his true

passion laid in sliding across the neck of a guitar

rather than around the bases. He began playing

weekend gigs all over the American Southeast

before he was out of high school, and he contin-

ued playing clubs while attending the University

of Alabama. But after a tornado nearly demol-

ished his home near the Tuscaloosa campus

in 2011, he decided that he needed to move to

Nashville and give his music a chance. Kinder

soon began working with acclaimed producers

Keith Stegall (Alan Jackson, Zac Brown Band)

and Paul Worley (Dixie Chicks, Lady Ante-

bellum) on his first two singles, “Tonight” and

“Kiss Me When I’m Down,” as well as Ross

Copperman (Dierks Bentley, Brett Eldredge)

on refining his edgy, romantic style. In 2016 he

delivered his first professional EP,

Deconstruct-

ed Studio Sessions

, and a new single, “Close,”

which he describes as a “hookup anthem flipped

upside down,” featuring his trademark guitar

work that lives somewhere between Stevie Ray

Vaughn and Matchbox Twenty. Kinder has since

been riding high on the single “Still Believe in

Crazy Love,” a cover of John Fogerty’s “Fortu-

nate Son,” and his latest original track, “Leap of

Faith.” Ryan Kinder is making his Ravinia debut.

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JUNE 11 – JUNE 17, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE