ZZ Top debut album, the band released "Rio Grande Mud" (1972), which failed commercially and the promotional tour consisted of mostly empty auditoriums. ZZ Top released "Tres Hombres" in 1973. The album's sound was the result of the propulsive support provided by Hill and Beard, and Gibbons' "growling" guitar tone. Dan Erlewine wrote that the album "brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process". The album included the boogie-driven "La Grange" (written about the Chicken Ranch, a notorious brothel in La Grange, Texas, that also inspired the musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"). On the
Nashville Tribute Band Deere and Truman co-produced a second Nashville Tribute album released in 2007 called "Trek: A Nashville Tribute To The Pioneers". The album covered the Mormon pioneer era of LDS history. The album won the 2007 Pearl Award for Group Recording Artist Of The Year (Jason Deere, The Nashville Tribute Band) as well as the 2008 Pearl Award for Inspirational Instrumental Recording Of The Year ("My People"/"Come, Come Ye Saints"). Years of touring the world with the Nashville Tribute Band, along with Deere and Truman's own experience serving as missionaries for LDS Church, led to the writing and production of the