Academy of Country Music

Randy Rogers Band Springs Surprise Trouble Release Show at Firehouse Saloon Tonight

The Randy Rogers Band has become a big enough name on the highly competitive Texas country/Red Dirt circuit that the quintet was chosen to open for George Strait and Martina McBride on Strait's Houston stop of his "The Cowboy Rides Away" tour at Reliant Stadium back in March. Reached by phone from " ... More >>

Just Be 'Cos': Eight Music Artists Perfectly Suited for Cosplay

Cosplay, short for "costume play," is the art of normal, everyday people going balls-out to depict themselves as their favorite fictional characters from comics, movies, video games and television. It's hugely popular, thanks to ComicCon and our obsession with all things pop-culture. Cosplayers gat ... More >>

Eli Young Band: "We Like to Stay Busy"

Now more than a decade old, the Eli Young Band is the rare Texas country act whose lyrics are not dominated by their home state and its musical heroes. Their music is largely fiddle-free, rather cut from the same cloth as pop-rockers like Tom Petty, Matchbox 20 and the Wallflowers, and if someone in ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week

Punch Brothers Fitzgerald's, January 29 It's easy to call Punch Brothers a thinking-man's bluegrass band, but even that doesn't describe the kind of ambition and virtuosity we're dealing with here. After flirting with the mainstream on a few pop-tinged albums, Nickel Creek banjo prodigy Chris Thiel ... More >>

Laura Bryant: Waco Nurse Lives Vegas High Life At ACM Awards

You win a contest, all expenses paid, to a major country-music awards show in Las Vegas. What happens next? Rocks Off will admit we had never even pondered that question until someone from Reliant Energy offered us a chance to interview the winner of Reliant's "Dream Trip of a Lifetime." The packag ... More >>

Dick Clark, Rock & Roll Benefactor, Dead At 82

Television producer, idol maker, and eternal teenager Dick Clark has died today at the age of 82 from a massive heart attack, TMZ is reporting. Clark's show American Bandstand helped foster rock and roll's development through its early years, and later he branched out into other television franchis ... More >>

Kenny Chesney & Tim McGraw Playing Reliant Stadium August 4

Rocks Off is used to seeing these kinds of announcements only around the Rodeo or at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. But two of country music's top alpha males, Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw, will bring their "Brothers of the Sun" tour to Reliant Stadium Saturday, August 4, promoter AEG announced today ... More >>

15 Things Rocks Off Learned Watching The ACM Awards

Sunday nights, I usually like to watch The Amazing Race after 60 Minutes. I don't usually watch much reality television at all, but something about the combination of total incompetence, vicious backstabbing and exotic locales as several, two-person teams race around the globe is completely intoxica ... More >>

RodeoHouston Wants To Send You To Vegas

The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo is well on its way to drawing a couple of million more (mostly) country-music fans to Reliant Stadium again this year. Now the rodeo and Reliant Energy want to send one lucky fan to the Academy of County Music Awards in Vegas April 1. No foolin'. All the couple hu ... More >>

Last Night: Eli Young Band At Reliant Stadium

Eli Young Band RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 5, 2012 Texas country fans ain't your average, run-of-the-mill country fans. We're not referring to country lovers who live in Texas, either. When we speak of Texas country, we're talking about the strain of country music that's reared on the small ... More >>

So Kenny Chesney Is Playing Discovery Green After All

Kenny Chesney models what will now be known as "The CultureMap Smirk."​Looks like CultureMap - and their "anonymous" sources - had it right. Way to go, guys. After the Houston digital daily broke the story (to Rocks Off's extreme skepticism), The NCAA, Turner Sports and CBS announced later Th ... More >>

Kenny Chesney Joining Final Four Concert Series... Maybe

Bryan WilliamsKenny Chesney at RodeoHouston, March 2010​CultureMap thinks it has a "scoop" for you. According to Houston's glossiest lifestyle Web site, barefoot beach-lover Kenny Chesney "appears to be" coming to join Kings of Leon at the NCAA's "Big Dance" concert series the weekend of April ... More >>

Jack Ingram

Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Rockabilly Country Soul of Big Al Downing

Maybe the most successful African-American country artist of the post-Charley Pride period was Big Al Downing. Talk about a guy who could blur the line between country and soul. An affable Oklahoman, Downing had a huge baritone voice that could melt hearts. Downing's career began in rockabilly. Aft ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Between Darius Rucker and Charley Pride, There Was Otis Williams

Darius Rucker's award as the Academy of Country Music's New Artist of the Year recently made him the first black artist to take a significant country award since Charley Pride ruled Nashville in the early '80s. Rucker's "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" marked the first time a black artist had e ... More >>

George Strait

Jamey Johnson

Just How Texan are Hayes Carll and Miranda Lambert?

Country Music Awards

Playbill

Living Doll

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

It Takes One

Lonestar returns to the Lone Star State in a blaze of glory

"Think" Not

A Texas housewife/songwriter claims country hunk Collin Raye stole her song