Email Author William Michael Smith

2012 Stories by William Michael Smith

• Introducing...The Beatles: Celebrating Their First Ed Sullivan Performance

  published Feb 09, 2012

  ​Lonesome, Onry and Mean didn't get in much trouble in school. So his parents were a little disturbed to find the eighth grader in the principal's office on the afternoon of February 10, 1964. H More >>

• Happy Birthday Joe Ely: The Lubbock Flash Turns 65

  published Feb 09, 2012

  ​I was living in Holland in 1977 when my younger brother, who had attended Wayland Baptist University on a track scholarship until booze and girls were discovered in his dorm room, came for a vi More >>

• Kinky Songs Get the Dayton Treatment

  published Feb 08, 2012

  ​In our recent interview with Kinky Friedman, performing tonight at Dosey Doe in the Woodlands, we mulled over Jesse Dayton's on-going project of an album of Friedman's songs. Friedman was very More >>

• Machine Head

  published February 9, 2012

  Any list of great thrash-metal bands — Slayer, Metallica, Hatebreed and a few others — has to include Oakland's Machine Head.... More >>

• Natalie Cole

  published February 9, 2012

  Few children of superstars ever seem to get out from under the cloud of their famous parents, but jazz legend Nat King Cole's daughter Natalie has... More >>

• Southern Discomfort: Kinky On the Road

  published Feb 07, 2012

  ​ The one-liners come out of Kinky Friedman's mouth so fast you need a protective shield. "The only thing Rick Perry managed to do with his Presidential campaign was to make George W. look lik More >>

• Legendary Composer Miles Davis Honored with Stamp

  published Feb 01, 2012

  ​ Jazz giant Miles Davis, along with immortal French chanteuse Edith Piaf, was honored last week with a commemorative stamp by the U.S. Postal Service. Davis's image is the well-known 1970 black More >>

• Los Lobos

  published February 2, 2012

  Is any band in America more revered or respected than East Los Angeles roots vatos Los Lobos? An American musical treasure, the core band... More >>

• Elizabeth Cook

  published February 2, 2012

  With her charming Deep South voice and aw-shucks manner, Nashville chanteuse and disc jockey Elizabeth Cook comes off as a pixie-ish, barefoot,... More >>

• The Comeback Cowboy

  published February 2, 2012

  Perhaps no musician screams "Houston" more than original urban cowboy Mickey Gilley, who will forever be identified with the Pasadena club named... More >>

• Some Questions About the Texas Music Awards 2012 Ballot

  published Jan 31, 2012

  ​If you think we were flabbergasted by songwriter Bob Cheevers touting his election as 2011 Songwriter of the Year in the Texas Music Awards sponsored by mytexasmusic.com and "sanctioned" (a hed More >>

• What Every Musician Needs: Better Shut Up Lines

  published Jan 31, 2012

  We all hate the trope "Houston, we have a problem," but we do have a problem in Houston with talkative, inattentive crowds at live shows. Scanning back over reviews from the past two years, at least More >>

• Ragin' Cajun Jo-El Sonnier Plays Nutty Jerry's Saturday

  published Jan 27, 2012

  ​Nutty Jerry's in Winnie has been doing a great job bringing in legacy acts like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Guess Who, Mickey Gilley, Ronnie Dunn, and Blood, Sweat and Tears. But the club rea More >>

• No More "Wild Thing" For the Troggs

  published Jan 26, 2012

  ​Lonesome, Onry and Mean was sad to learn via Chuck Prophet's Facebook page this morning that Reg Presley, lead singer of Sixties proto-punkers the Troggs, has been diagnosed with lung cancer. More >>

• UPDATE: Linda Chorney, Listen Up

  published Jan 25, 2012

  UPDATE -- a note from the author: We spoke to Mr. Ames again this afternoon. He informed us that he thought the conversation would not be used in our article and that it was only for background inform More >>

• Delicate Cutters: NOT Like Civil Wars

  published Jan 24, 2012

  ​We received the new Delicate Cutters 2011 album Some Creatures on the same day that we received the new Dead Fingers album from one of our favorite labels, Big Legal Mess, the offshoot successo More >>

• Drew Kennedy, Walt Wilkins, Jason Eady, Josh Grider, Susan Gibson, The Trishas

  published January 26, 2012

  Venerable southwest Houston tonk Firehouse Saloon hosts six "Texas music" acts for an acoustic showcase similar to KIKK-FM's Ten Man Jam series.... More >>

• Hans Frank: Not Safe For Work

  published Jan 24, 2012

  ​After several weeks of semi-classical, jazz, and folk music, Leon's Lounge takes a major swerve tonight with spiky haired Hans Frank. The front man of cow-thrash punkers Glambilly, Frank looks More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Etta James: A Closer Look Into One Of The Greatest Voices Ever Heard

  published Jan 20, 2012

  ​Etta James, almost universally praised as one of the finest voices of our era, has passed away at 73. Ironically, Ms. James had been discovered and recorded by rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny O More >>

• RIP Johnny Otis, the Godfather of Rhythm and Blues

  published Jan 20, 2012

  ​Johnny Otis, one of the creators of rock and roll but primarily remembered as the godfather of rhythm and blues, has passed away at 90. Otis died at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altade More >>

• Duct Tape Messiah Redux

  published Jan 19, 2012

  ​Part of a storied singer-songwriter scene, former Houstonians Gurf Morlix and Blaze Foley were living in Montrose during the Urban Cowboy craze but were not impressed. In fact, according to Mor More >>

• Chris Knight

  published January 19, 2012

  Broken beer bottle in one hand, skinning knife in the other, with a couple of warrants in his shirt pocket, Kentuckian Chris Knight comes from the... More >>

• All Shook Up

  published January 19, 2012

  Only a year ago, the Alabama Shakes were virtually unknown outside a couple of northern counties in their home state. Now they have a deal with... More >>

• Chris Gray Back in the Day

  published Jan 12, 2012

  ​When Chris Gray rolled back into town after 10+ years in Austin to work at Houston Press, my colleague, frequent co-conspirator, and editor John Nova Lomax called and asked if I'd take Gray out More >>

• Ladysmith Black Mambazo

  published January 12, 2012

  On the South African musical scene since the 1950s, today Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a worldwide traveling institution, an icon of South African... More >>