Dolly Parton

Paul Anka, Ladies' Man and Sinatra Worshipper, Tells It His Way

My Way: An Autobiography By Paul Anka with David Dalton St. Martin's Press, 384 pp., $29.99 Currently celebrating his 55th year in show business with this autobiography and the new CD Duets -- which finds him singing with artists like Celine Dion, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and (through the magic ... More >>

10 More Reasons Dolly Parton Is Badass

So, the 9th Annual Mountain Soul Vocal Competition is just around the corner, and you should care because it involves the ever-illustrious Country Barbie known as Ms. Dolly Parton. She's my favorite, and just saying her name makes me want to adopt a Southern accent and wear rhinestones. If you're a ... More >>

Top 10 Musicians Who Have Written Children's Books

Today is International Children's Book Day, celebrated every April 2 on the birthday of Little Mermaid author Hans Christian Andersen. It's a day to honor the joy of reading to your children (which I do with Lovecraft because, well, I'm kind of a bad person), and some wonderful musicians have gotten ... More >>

Bizarre Acting Roles by 20 Famous Musicians

It's a toss-up whether actors or musicians will go to greater lengths to make rent, but some musicians have even found themselves so hard up they've been forced to take an acting gig. Such is the case with the haystack-sized Sleepy LaBeef, who in 1968's The Exotic Ones appeared as the "Swamp Monster ... More >>

Cracker Barrel Is iTunes For Old People

If you have been paying attention to obscure press releases, you would know by now that Cracker Barrel, that folksy restaurant chain with all the rocking chairs out front that your grandparents love, is now a music retailer to boot. Yes, in addition to all those cool wooden toys and puppets, you c ... 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 >>

Verizon Wireless Theater Now Known As Bayou Music Center

Verizon Wireless Theater will no longer be known under that name, because owner Live Nation's sponsorship deal with the communication provider has expired. The venue, which holds about 3,000 people within downtown entertainment complex Bayou Place, will now be known as Bayou Music Center. Rocks Off ... More >>

Look Who Showed Up At The Rodeo Cookoff

Country stars Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton both dropped by the World's Championship BBQ Contest at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Thursday night, reports KHOU. Rocks Off has no idea what they were doing in town, besides both of them probably love good barbecue. That we know of, neither of the ... More >>

10 Rom-Coms Even Guys Will Watch

Can you smell it? Either love is in the air or the Chick-fil-A has started using chicken-scented billboards. Yes, Valentine's Day is coming to give all men night sweats over what to do on the most romantic of the Hallmark holidays. As we were searching around for entertainment suggestions, we were t ... More >>

Lauren McAdams: Going Up

Houston's Mezzanine Lounge Named Smartest Bar in America

mezzaninelounge.com​Contrary to what you may have heard up north, Texas isn't a congeries of lazy, narrow-minded, horse-riding, Dolly Parton-blasting moon calves. The truth is, we're just some easygoing folks who happen to kick ass at bar trivia. That's right, bar trivia. And it's official no ... More >>

Dallas Makes a Damn Fool of Itself on Top Chef: Texas

​Thoughts: Is it really a "Healthy Choice" when so many of your frozen dinners are laden with preservatives and other chemicals? With that, we're hitting the road to Dallas, better known these days as a "dining nowhereville." Great choice, Bravo! Enjoy that! "When I think of Dallas, I think of t ... More >>

Last Night: Dolly Parton At Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Jason Wolter​Dolly Parton Verizon Wireless Theater October 11, 2011 Dolly Parton seems like the kind of person so determined to make sure her audience has a good time, she's not above putting them to the thumbscrews to make sure that happens. Luckily, it didn't come to that Tuesday ... More >>

Dolly Parton

Top 10 Songs About Other Musicians

When you make music your life, it's only natural that you'd look at the people around you doing the same and find someone who just moistens the muse's panties. What we've tried to put together here is a list of those best efforts. Bear in mind, with one notable exception we've steered clear of fell ... More >>

The Five Worst Music Movies Ever*

* That aren't actual musicals *eye roll*​It would be easy to pick out a bunch of terrible musicals to make fun of. First off, most musicals seem stuck in the 1930s, when every song everywhere sounded like a show tune, and therefore stank. Second, we're afraid of polarizing our audience. You ... More >>

9 Musical Costumes Couples Should Avoid This Halloween

Norman See/last.fmNice threads, but... yeah. Don't go there.​The other day, a friend of ours asked us for our opinion on some ideas for "couple costumes," as in Halloween, including Han Solo and Princess Leia. Ugh. Do you happy couples really start this early in September? Rocks Off thinks ... More >>

Boobylicious: Music's 20 Most Memorable Breasts (Semi-NSFW)

ztams.comWendy O. Williams, seen here with Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister​It may sound silly, but boobs are powerful things. Men are fascinated and entranced by them, while women constantly obsess over their size and shape. In a way, they're not unlike the ring in Lord of the Rings: Capab ... More >>

Out Today: Beyonce's 4 Is Square, Limp Bizkit Chokes The Cobra

What is this I don't even....​This week in new releases sees is one of the most varied in months, with new discs by Beyonce, Limp Bizkit, Dolly Parton, and Thievery Corporation hitting shelves and digital outlets today. By far though, the sexiest album cover is the Beyonce art for 4, and the m ... More >>

Out Today: Bon Iver's Bandwagon Bait, Weird Al Goes Gaga

Greetings From Bon Iver Land! Now, grab a rifle. It's almost dinner time.​In the next few weeks, you may be reading about the new Robert Ellis album, Photographs, so we are just giving you fair warning. It's a stunner through and through, and goes nicely with early morning traffic. Have you ev ... More >>

Fifteen Of Our Favorite Cheating Songs

zazzle.com​Songwriters find inspiration many of life's varied realms: Joy, grief, sex, drugs, anger and, evidently, two-timing. Some are sad, some cheeky, some violent and revengeful, but we've collected a sad-sack grab-bag of cheating-related songs. Here is our Top 15, along with their lyric ... More >>

Zoo Station: A Noah's Ark Of 75 Animal Songs

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee ... 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 >>

Six Things The White Stripes Leave In Their Wake

​In the wake of the White Stripes' official breakup last week, the music world reeled with the loss of one of the defining bands of the past decade. Some applauded the end of a band they saw as too simplistic, buoyed by a sub-par drummer and warbling attention-addict. Different strokes, y'all. ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: 9 to 5, The Good Body, The Little Dog Laughed, To Cross the Face of the Moon

9 to 5: The Musical

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 >>

Mark Lanier's 2010 Desperate Christmas Party Performer: Sting

Nah, you're not invited​Mega-lawyer Mark Lanier each year throws an outrageous Christmas party, because there's nothing better to do with money than throw an opulent, look-at-me event that doesn't even serve liquor for all the dads who've had to drag their kids out to ride the rides.The event also ... More >>

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Enjoy "I Will Always Love You" on key and sans squeaks

He Said She Said: Songs That Make Us Feel Like a Natural Woman

​ Despite what Shania Twain may think, feelin' like a woman isn't always about going totally crazy in men's shirts and short skirts. The life of a modern woman is often more about balancing work and social obligations, maybe even with motherhood, while still trying to look good (if you even care a ... More >>

More Musical Medocrity For Houston's Private Party Of The Year

​For those folks out there wondering if superlawyer Mark Lanier had suddenly -- after all these years -- finally developed good musical taste, you can rest assured: He hasn't.Tort King Lanier is famous for his Christmas parties, elaborate (if liquor-free) bacchanals that feature kiddie rides, top- ... More >>

Lone Star Scorecard: All Tanya Tucker Edition

​The history of country music - or any music until recent years, for that matter - is largely represented by men, with female artists popping up more and more frequently as time passed and concert/record promoters realized there was a market for women in the business. In country, you started with ... More >>

The Nine Five Movies You Must See On 9-9-09

It's September 9, 2009, a date which has absolutely no significance to anyone except those celebrating Shane Battier's 31st birthday and people who regularly say things like, "Well of course you're having communication issues; you have retrograde Saturn in your 5th house." Today also marks the rele ... More >>

Loretta Lynn

Post-Valentine's Day Relationship Rescue Songs

Dwight McCannSo Valentine's Day is over, and you spent all your dough on Cupid swag for that special sweetie, which hopefully bought your way out of the doghouse for the time being. But if not, Casanova, your Rocks Off homies still have your back - provided you have an iTunes account. Sentime ... More >>

Selecting The Proper Valentine's Day Soundtrack

A Fine Romance

Vinyl Ranch’s tribute to Urban Cowboy

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

Strange Wikipedia Searches I Have Done

Dolly Parton: Backwoods Barbie

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Parade

Watch downtown turn into cowpoke heaven

R.I.P. Porter Wagoner

Fuck-off Friday: It’s Too Hot to Work Anyway

Brennen Leigh

Thursday, February 16, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

'Bout Time

Give it up for soul survivor Bettye LaVette

Playbill

The Joy of Cooking

Las Nuevas Tamaleras is a corny kitchen comedy

Sonny Landreth

Saturday, April 17

Big Country

Buddy and Julie Miller --

Gracious Angel

A box set doesn't mean Emmylou Harris's career is done; it may mean it's just beginning

Critic's Choice

Appalachia Calling