Mahalia Jackson
The 12 days of Christmas begin Thursday and run until Epiphany, January 5. Here is a song for half those days. See what's in the other half tomorrow morning.
12. "Silent Night," Mahalia Jackson. The supreme Christmas melody requires the supreme voice, and if anybody's ever sung it prettier or more powerfully than Mahalia Jackson I haven't heard it. There are different renditions floating around. While some are better than others, all are devastating.
11. "Santa Looked a Lot L
"Wine Me Up," live at D&L's Texas Music Cafe, Austin, SXSW 2005
I remember a time when it seemed like I went to Blanco's every week. If it wasn't the Hollisters, it was folks like Jim Lauderdale or Chris Wall or some other totally legit act that would pack the little joint like a sardine can. Unfortunately (and maybe not incoincidentally?) Blanco's seemed to kinda dumb it down a bit during the Bush years. That scene just seemed to go stale a few years back, and average rather than exceptio
Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray
In the Tarot, "The Fool is the spirit in search of experience. He represents the mystical cleverness bereft of reason within us, the childlike ability to tune into the inner workings of the world." Hat sold separately.As you've hopefully been able to tell from our previous two entries (and yes, we were KIDDING about both of them), Rocks Off has been having some fun with April Fool's Day today. According to Wikipedia - unless, you know, they're joki
Photos by Chris Gray​
At his first proper gig since relocating to Houston last month, suit-clad Mike Stinson raised the bar for honky-tonk around here a little. Maybe a lot. Joined by guitarist Lance Smith and Winfield Cheek on keyboards, steel and mandolin, Stinson sang his way through a jukebox's worth of field notes on various fools on stools in a nasal tone reminiscent of Buck Owens' Bakersfield buddy Webb Pierce.
Stinson, Smith and Cheek eased into the first of their two sets, alternatin
Arty Hill is a Baltimore, Md., honky-tonker who has been playing regularly in Austin the past couple of years. He also reads Lonesome Onry and Mean's blog religiously and has already penned a couple of new songs based on the goings-on in these pages. He recently contacted LOM about Mike Stinson's list of great honky-tonk drinking songs, noting that none of Stinson's featured women in the central roles.
Hill writes to LOM: "I really liked Mike's list of his favorite drinking songs. Then I starte
Other than Buck Owens, no artist had a bigger effect on Dwight Yoakam than "The Singing Fisherman," Johnny Horton. This East Texas rockabilly cool cat grabbed Rocks Off's attention every time his name was mentioned or a song of his came on the radio. We suspect it was the same for Yoakam, who channels Horton as well as anyone ever has.
Although born in Los Angeles, Horton was raised in Rusk and Gallatin in deep East Texas before he eventually settled in the Shreveport area, where he was a membe
