Conway Twitty

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Josh Turner, K-Rino, Romeo Santos, etc.

Josh Turner Nutty Jerry's (Winnie), April 5 It's hard to keep up with every new country crooner that comes over the pop-twang airwaves, but thankfully Josh Turner's deeper-than-the-holler voice manages to stand out from the Keith Urban clones, sounding way more trad-country than those other guys at ... More >>

Last Night: Dierks Bentley at Reliant Stadium

Dierks Bentley Reliant Stadium March 6, 2013 I never, ever do something like this, for reasons I hope should be obvious to our readers, but after watching Dierks Bentley (and the crowd) Wednesday night at RodeoHouston, I felt compelled to Google the words "Dierks Bentley girlfriend." Ladies love th ... More >>

Houston Needs a Real Country Station, Not More Bull

Somewhere in college those of us arts and humanities types who were passionate about music, but knew we were not talented enough to perform it professionally, eventually wandered into the journalism school or the student radio station. Everyone else must have wound up in a marketing classroom. Rewi ... More >>

Christmas Past: The Lost Sinatra Group Christmas Episode

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared December 22, 2010. Through the magic of Christmas, Rocks Off has received a copy of the transcript ... More >>

Gen. Petraeus: A Possible Glimpse at the Spymaster's iPod

Nuge the Stooge knows what CIA director needed. Enough already about Gen. David Petraeus and his private harem ... err, his embedded biographer with the flashy wardrobe and bad vision. Petraeus is a patriot, a winner of wars, a brilliant strategerizer, a man dedicated to little beyond his own caree ... More >>

5 Great Songs by Psy Besides “Gangnam Style”

Who Should Play RodeoHouston In 2013?

On October 30, just a few days from now, RodeoHouston will announce its first round of performers for the 2013 edition of the star-studded, yeehawin', nearly three-week event at Reliant Park. The booking the last few years has been getting more adventurous, with the likes of Kid Rock, KISS, Mary J. ... More >>

Last Night: Fiona Apple at Bayou Music Center

Fiona Apple Bayou Music Center September 21, 2012 The arrival of Apple's tour bus at Bayou Music Center Friday was a soothing sight to fans, as many feared the beloved musician wouldn't make it out of jail in time for her scheduled show. Rewind: Fiona Apple Arrested In West Texas For Hash Possessi ... More >>

Guess the Country Star by Only His Cowboy Hat

You'll ride a black tornado cross't the western skies Rope an ole blue norther, milk it till it's dry Bull dawg the Mississippi, pin it's ears down flat Long before you take this cowboy's hat. -- Chris Ledoux, "This Cowboy's Hat" A popular saying in Texas goes that a man who talks a good game but ... More >>

The American Bandstand (Extended) Hot 100

Somehow it's hard to believe that Dick Clark was only 82 years old when he died after suffering a "massive heart attack" Wednesday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. (Since I managed to survive one myself, I've noticed that anytime someone dies of a heart attack, it's always "massive."). Despite his yo ... More >>

Jason Cassidy's 10 Country Songs You Should Hear Before You Die

Tonight traditional country upstart Jason Cassidy headlines Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon out in Clear Lake. The strip-center venue, known for it's pretty girls with painted-on jeans and copious amounts of trucks in the parking lot and a Bud Light in every hand, has been host to Cassidy many times b ... More >>

Together Always: Country Duets for Valentine's Day

Maybe it's because I'm a Libra, but I believe that everything in life should be as harmonious as possible-love, especially. Duets might be the ultimate musical testament to such a theory. I'm not talking about the resonance that's created when a woman is vacuuming while her man watches television. I ... More >>

Last Night: Zac Brown Band at the Woodlands

Photos by Marco Torres​Aftermath has heard a decent amount of entertaining segues at concerts. Most concert segues are awkward and some are funny, but this one from Zac Brown's last night was the most country shit we've ever heard: "Sometimes you have to fight the chicken when you're a man." ... More >>

Last Night: Glen Campbell At Stafford Centre

Photos by Jason Wolter​Glen Campbell Stafford Centre September 21, 2011 Thursday night may have been the most profoundly uncomfortable Aftermath has ever been watching a live performance. In the past year, we have seen many artists of advanced years in concert, from Merle Haggard and Willie ... More >>

Five Filthy Conway Twitty Ditties Sure To Get Her To Press Charges

The tighter the pants, the stronger the pull. ​True story, back when we were trying to pick out Twitter handles in 2008, we almost went by @ConwayTwitter, but we instead went for a real name. Now the handle is taken, probably by someone who doesn't even like Conway Twitty, who would have been ... More >>

Lyrical Advice For The Class Of 2011

"Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about you!"​There will be no guitars and Marshall stacks at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend, just "Pomp and Circumstance." As the Class of 2011 walks across the stage soon to be occupied by Peter Gabriel, Widespread Panic and Ki ... More >>

Last Shot Of Whiskey Wednesday Is Powerful Stuff

Steve Jansen​Rocks Off doesn't know where you went to school, but Robert Ellis & the Boys' final Whiskey Wednesday at Fitzgerald's last night felt a lot like the prom/graduation party we always wanted to have. With maybe just a little more beer. 'Tis the season. As the ceiling sagged from th ... More >>

Rocks Off's Fantasy RodeoHouston Lineup

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show & RodeoGeorge Strait in 1996​If you walk through Reliant Center, hanging from the ceiling are banners listing almost every musical performer RodeoHouston has hosted since the '60s. The names reflect the hallowed history of country and fleeting fancies ... More >>

The Lost Sinatra Group Christmas Episode

​Through the magic of Christmas, Rocks Off has received a copy of the transcript of the "Sinatra Group" sketch that was filmed in an alternate reality last weekend, one in which Phil Hartman never died, and Saturday Night Live is currently in one of its funniest seasons to date. What else cou ... More >>

No Shame

Dr. Dog shrugs off faint praise.

Ten Country Covers That Top The Pop Originals

​Our copy must still be in the mail, but Rocks Off figures we have heard enough songs from Jamey Johnson's new album The Guitar Song on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country to know that we like it a whole lot. But none that we've heard so far are our favorite new Johnson song. It's close. No flies on G ... More >>

Into the Jungle

The Jungle Rockers are wound too tight for Vietnam...what about Texas?

R&B Legend Ivory Joe Hunter To Get State Historical Marker

​Rocks Off's predecessor John Nova Lomax, who normally reports on much more sordid goings-on in East Texas, tipped us off to a story in today's Beaumont Enterprise that reports late Texas R&B legend Ivory Joe Hunter will have an official Texas State Historical Marker erected at his gravesite n ... More >>

Aftermath: Blake Shelton - Could It Be? Country? - At RodeoHouston

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™​It's possible that Blake Shelton, aside from Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn, is the most traditional country act RodeoHouston will have this year. That's either a step in the right direction or a happy accident on the part of the organizer ... More >>

He Said She Said: "Dear Penis" And Other Country Comedy Classics

​ Aside from all the epic cheating, drinking and fighting songs country music has given us, one of the best things it does is make us laugh. Apart from all the crying and cussing, there is a whole deal of laughing going on. This year at RodeoHouston, there aren't many performers on the humorous si ... More >>

Aftermath: Billy Bob Thornton's Boxmasters, and Special Guest Billy Gibbons, at Fitzgerald's

Photos by Craig Hlavaty​A sad part of being a major celebrity and starting a rock band on the side is that inherently people will show up out of nowhere to see your band and ignore your music because they just want to see "you." Sometimes the music somehow ends up overshadowing the celebrity ... More >>

What Rocks Off Found When We Hacked Tiger Woods' iPod

Since Rocks Off kindly suggested several musicians who would perhaps have made better trysting partners for Tiger Woods than waitresses, porn stars and what have you, the number of the maritally embattled golf superstar's alleged paramours has risen from nine to 11. Whoops, it's gone up from 11 to ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Elizabeth Cook on Rodney Crowell, Florida Folk and "Apron Strings"

​Most mornings, Rocks Off wakes up to Elizabeth Cook's country-as-cornbread drawl on her Outlaw Country satellite-radio program, "Apron Strings" (Sirius 63, XM 13, 5-9 a.m. Mondays). On her 2007 LP Balls - produced by the Houston Kid himself, Rodney Crowell - Cook was as frank and charming on song ... More >>

Westheimer Block Party Listology: Bright Men of Learning Remember Their Parents' Favorite Music

All this week, Rocks Off is previewing Saturday and Sunday's Westheimer Block Party by asking WBP performers to fill out a list from Lisa Nola's Music Listography book we're so fond of. It's not too late for your band to be up here, either; just email chris.gray@houstonpress.com by noon Thursday if ... More >>

Earl Thomas Conley

Lonesome Onry and Mean: A Brief History of "Danny Boy" - Evergreen But Not Exactly Irish

​The Pogues are only one week away, so no time like the present to reflect on Irish music. For many Americans, no song epitomizes Irish music like "Danny Boy." Lonesome Onry and Mean was gently prodding my Irish and European friends at the boozer recently regarding their opinions about the top rec ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Our Pal Arty Hill Picks His Favorite Songs About Drunk Women

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 l ... More >>

The Quotable Bono

The loquacious Irishman is pathologically incapable of keeping his opinions to himself.

Vinyl Ranch’s tribute to Urban Cowboy

Leon’s monthly country-music installment pays tribute to classic country cinema

Bartender, Pour the Wine: Ten Great Country Breakup Songs

Give Us a Hand

Cowboy Up

Mercy Eventually

More than 20 years down the road, Mary Gauthier is finally an emerging artist

Radio Daze

One man, one jambox and four walls. For 24 hours.

A Pair of Aces

John Evans and Jesse Dayton drop career-defining records two weeks apart

Loretta Lynn

Sunday, February 22

Prodigal Sons

The Man in Black claims his Bastards

Rotation

Rotation