Clint Black

Despite landing on both the best and worst lists of Houston songs elsewhere in this issue, Clint Black has mostly been a model of consistency. Years of toiling in area clubs resulted in the overnight success of 1989's Killin' Time and an armload of country-music awards hardware over the years. His songs are workmanlike and effective, most retaining the stamp of the acoustic ­country-folk he learned from local mentors like Shake Russell. And whether lump-raising ballads like "Burn One Down" or friskier trots custom-made for his impish grin like "A Good Run of Bad Luck," they're often excellent. After moonlighting as an actor and starting a family and his own record label, Black returned to traditional honky-tonk and Western swing on 2005's Drinkin' Songs and Other Logic, so it's easy to forgive an occasional misfire like "I Raq and Roll." Besides, any chance to take in a show in the Grand's sumptuous late-Victorian surroundings is welcome indeed.