Albert King

For Once, the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Got It Right

Despite being sick and hacking up more different colors of phlegm than there are Power Rangers, I needed to certify that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wasn't completely mad for its incoming inductees. Rewind: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Set To Induct Rush, Heart, Donna Summer, and Public Enemy Y ... More >>

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Set To Induct Rush, Heart, Donna Summer, And Public Enemy

Today the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland announced their 2013 class of inductees. Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Heart, Albert King, Randy Newman, and longtime jilted proggers Rush have all made the cut. The star-studded ceremony is set for April 18 in Los Angeles. REWIND: Last Night: Rush ... More >>

Understanding the Rock Hall's 2013 Nominees: Chic? Kraftwerk? Butterfield?

Wednesday night The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced their 2013 nominees for induction next year. These names will be voted on by a committee of guys in bad weaves, rich people who know the right people, and tenured music writers with axes to grind. The names are as follows: The Pa ... More >>

RIP Leo Aston: Local Guitarist, Leo Trio Leader Passes Away

Local blues guitarist Leo Aston has passed away. According to posts on the Houston Blues Society and Houston Blues Museum Facebook sites, Aston finally succumbed to cancer in the early hours this morning. The leader of the Leo Trio, Alston was one of the good guys in the Houston blues scene. He had ... More >>

RIP Leo Aston: Local Guitarist, Leo Trio Leader Passes Away

Local blues guitarist Leo Aston has passed away. According to posts on the Houston Blues Society and Houston Blues Museum Facebook sites, Aston finally succumbed to cancer in the early hours this morning. The leader of the Leo Trio, Alston was one of the good guys in the Houston blues scene. He had ... More >>

True Blood: Of Wolf and Anton Newcombe

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood -- which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. This is going to be a brief look into True Blood, because I frankl ... More >>

A Soulful Christmas In July

I didn't think I would succumb to sharing with the world how freaking hot I think it is because every time I see one of you complaining about it on Facebook, I envision your head between a Foreman grill. That might be pregnancy hormones speaking, but seriously; it's July, we're in Houston, it's ou ... More >>

Michael Martin Murphey: The Cosmic Cowboy Years

Texas singer-songwriter and real by-god cowboy Michael Martin Murphey has already walked Rocks Off through a healthy bit of the past 100 years of American folk music this morning, as well as a good bit of his own. But dissatisfied with the folk scene he found out in late-'60s Southern California, he ... More >>

A God-Fearing Boogie Man

Reverend K.M. Williams says the blues aren't the devil's music.

Flying High Again: Five-ish Guys That Made the Flying V Famous

There are few instruments more distinctive than the Flying V. It's odd that a guitar this funky looking has been commonly used by a wide range of guitar players from country and blues to rock, but it has. Over the years, particularly in the '80s when "the weirder the shape the better" and "splotched ... More >>

The Funky Chicken: Good Stuff in the Mailbox

Yeah, it's like that.​Once again our mailbox has filled to overflowing with CDs (and zip files). The desk looks like a Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown of jewel cases, and the entire room is littered with (largely unread) piles of hype-and-tout. And while much of what comes over the transom ... More >>

The 15 Best Bill Graham Presents Posters And Artwork

Photo By Tony MorelliBill Graham in 1974​Twenty years ago this week, legendary concert promoter Bill Graham went to the big backstage party in the sky after the helicopter he was riding in flew into a high-voltage tower in Vallejo, Calif. Also killed in the crash was Graham's girlfriend, Melis ... More >>

Old School

Musicians in their 70s and 80s are keeping Houston's traditional blues scene real.

Bobby Whitlock: Derek's Main Domino Dishes On Layla & More

Derek & the Dominos​It's been an active, and retroactive, time for singer-songwriter/keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, best known as one of the playing pieces in the Eric Clapton-led group Derek and the Dominos, along with bassist Carl Radle (who died in 1980) and drummer Jim Gordon, currently in pr ... More >>

13 Lucky Songs For Friday The 13th

​Happy Friday the 13th, everyone. Unlike most Fridays, this one has gone pretty smoothly here at Rocks Off HQ, which means we must be in for a hellacious Monday. But hey, that's next week. Our luck may be holding up - for now - but we couldn't let the occasion go by unremarked (plus a couple ... More >>

Flying V Hall Of Fame: Saluting One Rockin' Guitar

thestoneband.com​Today is the 53rd birthday of the Gibson Flying V, which since its debut has become synonymous with metal and hard rock of all stripes. The image of that V-shape is as iconic as the power chords it generates. Rocks Off has seen reverse V's and even bass V's in our time, and ha ... More >>

Last Night: The Black Keys At The Woodlands

Photos by Marc Brubaker​The Black Keys Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 20, 2010 "Howlin' at midnight, winter creepin' in/ Feel like I've gone and lost my best friend" - Lucinda Williams, "Howlin' At Midnight" Did you see the moon Wednesday night? The "Super Harvest Moon" that, acco ... More >>

Howlin' Wolf Hits 100; Did He Ever Hit Houston?

​Like Tom Petty - heard the new album yet? - once sang, it's good to be king. While Rocks Off No. 2 is saddled with justifying his tendency to sing "Over the Rainbow" in the car when (he says) no one else is around, we've been looking into the local connections of someone else with a birthday toda ... More >>

Beyond His Years

A bluesman since age ten, Bernard Allison has learned his lessons well.

Aftermath: Booker T's Rock-Solid Soul And Farm-Fresh "Onions" At Wired Live

Photos by Brittanie SheyThat's right, Booker T also plays guitar.​ Booker T has had a hand (well, two hands) in crafting so many pop, soul and R&B staples that the hardest part of his pre-concert routine must be making out his set list. Where do you put "Green Onions"? How many of the dozens o ... More >>

The Musical Minds That Made Booker T The Soul Man He Is Today

​How good a musician is Booker T? Along with the rest of the MGs, the house band of seminal soul imprint Stax who had several instrumental hits of their own besides backing Stax's powerhouse roster (Rufus Thomas, Albert King, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding...) throughout the '60s, the Memphis-born m ... More >>

The Way He Sees It

To Raphael Saadiq, music is music and Yeasayer is all right with him.

Season of the Witch

U2's awe-inspiring Reliant Stadium show prompts a search for the unknown — and unknowable — in music.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Lying Liars and the Songs Written About Them

​After South Carolina representative Joe Wilson's bush-league grandstander heckling of the President last night - imagine the hue and cry if Nancy Pelosi had done the same thing during one of W's inane lie-filled speeches! - what Lonesome, Onry and Mean needs is some songs about lies and liars. On ... More >>

Dan Aykroyd on the (Mostly Texan) Blues Brothers Band, Our New House of Blues, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Houston Kinfolk, SNL in Campaign '08 and More

Get Lit: Skydog: The Duane Allman Story, by Randy Poe

Juneteenth Revisited

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Friday Night: Doyle Bramhall at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck

The H-Town Blues Festival

The H-Town Blues Festival will be held Saturday, February 3, at the Reliant Arena, 8400 Kirby Drive, 713-667-1400.

James Hunter

ames Hunter appears Friday, May 26, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899

Teenage Fanclub

Man-Made

Jammin' on the Sabbath

If the Sunday-afternoon concert series isn't enough, there are still 10,000 free reasons to go to the Space Place

Teenage Wasteland

Two artists ask how boys become men in a videocracy

Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets featuring Sam Myers

Saturday, November 30

The Anti-Clapton

Rocky Hill hopes to find a smooth patch on his rocky road

Smoke and Steel

The Kinsey Report's findings: Blues, rock, funk and reggae can coexist in one band, but the blend won't make you famous

Aim to Please

Luther and his Healers know the cure for what ails most local bands

Sacred Blues

Blues 2 Joy writes a new testament for the devil's music

Bowing to Pop

A Muslim by choice, Jawad couldn't deny the will of his music

Moore Is More

The former Austin guitar-slinger wants people to know he has more than SRV licks at his disposal

Playbill

Living Blues: Tommy Castro

White Boy Blues

Houston native Vince Converse takes homegrown blues sound to heart

Blues Brothers

The Kinsey Report and its familial blues-funk

1998 Houston Press Music Awards Winners

Cry Tough

Essential bassist Tommy Shannon hangs in there

Memories of the Blues

Antone's celebrates 20 years of music with -- what else? -- more music

Rotation

Goodbye to Lanny Steele

Takin' the Lead

Quintessential backup man (and Stevie Ray mentor) Doyle Bramhall steps out in front

New Blues

Alternative rock robs pop's cradle