Email Author William Michael Smith

2012 Stories by William Michael Smith

• Saturday: Rock Baby Rock It Was Hot, Hot, Hot

  published Jul 23, 2012

  Rock Baby Rock It 12 Feat. The Octanes, Los Skarnales, Jesse Dayton Continental Club July 21, 2012 See the pin-ups and hot rods of Rock Baby Rock It in our slideshow. Hot was the operative word at S... More >>

• NRBQ's Al Anderson Now a World Famous Headliner

  published Jul 19, 2012

  Above: Al Anderson (l) and World Famous Headliners in the studio. There are people in Nashville, highly successful people, the average fan or casual music listener has little if any clue about. Chri... More >>

• Marshall Lytle Rocks This Joint

  published July 19, 2012

  Starting Thursday, hoop skirts, hepcats and hot rods will take over the Continental Club compound for the 12th annual Rock Baby Rock It... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  RIP Kitty Wells: Onetime Queen of Country Music Dies at 92

  published Jul 16, 2012

  Legendary Nashville singer Kitty Wells has died at age 92, according to reports from Associated Press within the past hour. Wells was the first female to top the country charts with her song "It Wa... More >>

• Rich Hopkins Finds Houston Humidity Suits Him

  published Jul 11, 2012

  Living most of his adult and professional life in Tuscon, Arizona, former Sidewinders/Sand Rubies front man Rich Hopkins has recently relocated to Houston. For those who don't remember, Hopkins and... More >>

• A Feisty Texas Radio Road Trip with the Mike Stinson Band

  published Jul 06, 2012

  Lonesome Onry and Mean hasn't been out on the road with his son, Mike Stinson Band guitarist Lance Smith, in quite a while. But due to a propitious routing that took us to my father's place in Gatesvi... More >>

• Arty Hill: Baltimore Honky-Tonker Hits Blanco's Tonight

  published Jul 05, 2012

  Being a honky-tonker in Baltimore seems as unlikely as finding a communist cell in River Oaks, but Arty Hill is living proof that honky-tonk exists on the Eastern seaboard. With five albums in his ... More >>

• Potbelly Release Second Album

  published July 5, 2012

  Cypress-Fairbanks rockers Potbelly are set to release their second album, simply titled Potbelly, this weekend with two shows. More... More >>

• Father Sean Horrigan Set to Rock Leon's Lounge Tonight

  published Jun 29, 2012

  The Celebrity DJ" Fridays at Leon's Lounge take a turn from the secular to the sacred tonight when Father Sean Horrigan, pastor at Christ the Redeemer Church, commands the turntables. Horrigan, whom ... More >>

• Mail Dump: Janis, Little Richard, dBs, Donovan, Etc.

  published Jun 28, 2012

  The mailbox has been truly kind the past several weeks. Sure, there are still piles of useless dreck to wade through/past/over. But those all get to go to the big box in the dark closet and await th... More >>

• Life After "Popular"

  published June 28, 2012

  Entering their twentieth year and currently touring their latest album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy (Barsuk), New York... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Friday Night: Garland Jeffreys at the Continental Club

  published Jun 25, 2012

  Garland Jeffreys Continental Club June 22, 2012 Oh, Houston, what were you thinkingr After Rocks Off has touted your attributes, your beauty, your understated sense of cool to many a foreigner, why w... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Kool & the Gang: "Houston Better Be Ready"

  published Jun 22, 2012

  With more than 70 million records sold, the men of Kool and the Gang stand as some of the most commercially successful funksters of all time. Born in Jersey City, N.J., the band was essentially just a... More >>

• Garland Jeffreys, The Contortionist

  published June 21, 2012

  At 69, Brooklyn rocker Garland Jeffreys has seen about all of it. A running buddy of Lou Reed's when they both attended art school at Syracuse... More >>

• The Friedman Brothers: Forerunners of SCTV, Release Comic Collection

  published Jun 18, 2012

  The sons of writer/comic genius Bruce J. Friedman and model/writer/acting coach Ginger Howard, Josh Alan and Drew Friedman were raised in the artistic bowels of New York City. Josh Alan, a longtime co... More >>

• 8 Keepers From Mail Call: Hacienda, Elvin Bishop, Janiva Magness, Etc.

  published Jun 12, 2012

  Once again, the mailbox has overflowed like a backed-up sewer and Lonesome Onry and Mean has had to make some space decisions: Does this record go on the shelf (keep it, it's good, but I want to lis... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Third Ward Treasure Jewel Brown: "I've Seen 'Em All"

  published Jun 06, 2012

  Along with Lightnin' Hopkins's cousin Milton Hopkins, Houston jazz diva Jewel Brown heads north to Chicago this weekend, where she and Hopkins will entertain folks with their new album, Milton Hopkins... More >>

• Satin Doll

  published June 7, 2012

  Houston jazz and blues diva Jewel Brown may be the only woman on the planet to have worked in Jack Ruby's nightclub and done a special command... More >>

• John Fullbright Growls Like Hayes Carll, or Vice Versa

  published Jun 01, 2012

  At last, the promise we've always seen in John Fullbright is signed, sealed, delivered and certified in his first full-length studio album, From the Ground Up. Having seen Fullbright solo and duo th... More >>

• Last Night: Lumineers at Fitzgerald's

  published May 31, 2012

  Lumineers Fitzgerald's May 30, 2012 Denver-based Lumineers packed Fitzgerald's to the rafters Wednesday night, turning the upstairs stage into a 90-degree cauldron of sweat. I still don't understand ... More >>

• Legendary Appalachian Picker Doc Watson Passes Away at 89

  published May 30, 2012

  Arthel "Doc" Watson, one of the all-time virtuosos of Appalachian guitar and a beloved figure in both the bluegrass and Americana communities, passed away Tuesday night at Wake Forest Baptist Medica... More >>

• Bluegrass Great Doc Watson Hospitalized

  published May 24, 2012

  Word has come that Doc Watson, beloved 89-year-old flat-picking genius and elder statesman of the Americana music scene, has been airlifted to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after ... More >>

• Houston Scores Big-Time in Latest Edition of Encyclopedia of Country Music: Part 7

  published May 22, 2012

  Three former Houstonians who have been included in the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Country Music defy all odds. To call Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett or Steve Earle "country songwriters" or "c... More >>

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  Healthcare for Homeless Head Meets Michelle Obama, Gets Big Surprise Check

  published May 18, 2012

  As founder and president of Healthcare for the Homeless -- Houston (HHH), Dr. David Buck is a busy man. So busy, in fact, he was taken aback when his office got a voice message from U.S. Representativ... More >>

• Houston Scores Big-Time in Latest Edition of Encyclopedia of Country Music: Part 6

  published May 16, 2012

  Mickey Newbury paved the road from Houston to Nashville for a Hells Angels-ish, hard-drinking, hard-drugging gaggle of songwriters who, like Newbury, would go on to make a serious mark on Music City... More >>