Subject: Drive-By Truckers

• Confessions of a Classic Rock Whore, or One Man’s Journey

  July 13, 2007

• Pop Numerology: How High Can You Go?

  October 10, 2007

• Big State, Big Ideas

  October 12, 2007

• Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?

  April 15, 2008

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Justin Townes Earle, Dustin Welch and Jubal Lee Young Crawl Out of the Shadows

  May 29, 2008

• Tonight: Dustin Welch at Under the Volcano

  July 9, 2008

• This Just In: Robert Plant and Allison Krauss Confirm Woodlands Date

  July 14, 2008

• Aftermath: Drive-By Truckers at Meridian

  September 25, 2008

• Soul Day at ACL: I Feel Good!

  September 27, 2008

• Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

  October 1, 2008

• Patterson Hood

  Killers and Stars (New West)

  July 15, 2004

• Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

  So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's karaoke bar had to have studied the infamous September 2001 Clear Channel memorandum of songs with "questionable" lyrics, some of which concerned aerial death and disaster. If they did, they would know to

  December 4, 2008

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: 2008's Heavy Rotation

  For the second (third?) year in a row, LOM didn't vote in either the Nashville Scene's best of country music poll or the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop best of American music poll. I'm just not a good list-maker. Detest that stuff. Just trying to compile a list of possibles makes my brain hate me. Anyway, I rarely get serviced by the major labels, and I don't listen to the radio stations that kowtow to the major labels, so I don't feel I have much context in which to wrestle with the important

  December 30, 2008

• Aftermath Extra: The Best Concerts of the Year, Part 6

  Silver Jews, Walter's on Washington, September 18: "[Silver Jews frontman David] Berman strode around the stage with confidence; you wouldn't know he's still getting used to playing live. At times, he looked so loose that he might slump to the floor had he not been leaning on the mic stand." (Troy Schulze) Drive-By Truckers, Meridian, September 24: "The Truckers have gradually infused more and more pre-rock music (both black and white) into their songs, which have as many gnarled roots and b

  January 2, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Miss Leslie Takes Top Honors in Freeform Americana Radio Awards

  Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers, "Yes Ma'am" Houston's own Miss Leslie Sloan of Miss Leslie and Her Jukejointers was tipped for a slew of honors in the most recent Best of 2008 voting by FAR (Freeform Americana Radio) members. She was voted Female Artist of the Year over Eliza Gilkyson and Carrie Rodriguez, and Songwriter of the Year over another Houstonian, Hayes Carll. Leslie's Between the Whiskey and the Wine took home top album honors, while Carll's Trouble In Mind was slotted at No

  January 9, 2009

• Could Alternative Country Work at the Rodeo?

  February 26, 2009

• The Year in Albums

  December 25, 2008

• Santa Baby

  What a few musicians want under their trees this year

  December 25, 2008

• Who Stole the Roll?

  August 28, 2008

• Canada Day, with the Drams

  June 26, 2008

• Bettye LaVette's an old soul, through and through

  April 17, 2008

• Local Motion at Cactus Music

  February 21, 2008

• Our Favorite Albums of 2007

  December 27, 2007

• Drive By Truckers

  The Dirty South (New West)

  August 26, 2004

• Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime

  www.bettyelavette.com

  October 11, 2007

• Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

  April 23, 2009

• Houston Radio Still Sucks

  David Sadof shares his dream station with Racket

  May 10, 2007

• The Drams

  The Drams perform Thursday, January 18, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

  January 18, 2007

• Drive-By Truckers, with the Black Crowes

  Sunday, July 2, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, 281-363-3300

  June 29, 2006

• Heartless Bastards

  Thursday, June 30, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh Drive, 713-521-0521.

  June 30, 2005

• Lynyrd Skynyrd and Montgomery Gentry

  Thursday, March 17 (Montgomery Gentry), and Friday, March 18 (Lynyrd Skynyrd), at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Reliant Center, 1 Reliant Park, 832-667-1400.

  March 17, 2005

• Americana Pie

  Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

  December 23, 2004

• Shut Up and Drive

  The Drive-By Truckers ain't just whistling Dixie in their van

  November 11, 2004

• The South's Done It Again

  Southern rock comes in for another revival

  September 11, 2003

• Truckadelic

  Thursday, June 21, Continental Club, 3700 Main

  June 21, 2001

• Listening Room: What's Been Tickling Our Earholes Lately

  As Rocks Off has noted in our periodic Mail Call entries, even though the tide of promo CDs has been greatly reduced by the digital revolution - Rocks Off can count on one finger (the middle one) the times he's actually used the streaming/download email link publicists are ever more fond of these days - he still gets more new CDs via snail mail than any one person can rightfully be expected to audition. Most of these are eliminated either through gut instinct or a quick glance at the accompanyi

  April 27, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: "Killing the Blues" with Plant and Krauss

  Led Zeppelin shouter Robert Plant and country/pop vocalist Alison Krauss seem like a highly unlikely duo. When I heard they'd made an album together called Raising Sand, the pairing seemed so odd I didn't really even want to hear it. I thought their two voices would clash like Lucinda Williams and Robbie Fulks. But the woman in my life, a pretty fair vocalist in her own right, kept telling me I had to listen to it. Now she and I don't exactly listen in lockstep; she likes Rufus Wainright and Jul

  May 4, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Another Record Store Day at Cactus Music

  Cactus Music and the Record Ranch is having another Record Store Day Saturday, with a lineup of events that borders on serious party happening. The highlight of the day will be a live appearance by red-hot San Antonio band The Krayolas (above). San Antonio's oldest and most respected rockero outfit has hit serious paydirt with their single "Corrido: Twelve Heads in a Bag," a tale based on the current wave of gruesome violence in Mexico. The song was first picked up by Little Steven Van Zandt on

  June 19, 2009

• MP3 of the Day: Grizzly

  There's nothing better on the Fourth of July than stumbling across a new band from your hometown whose surly, punk-flavored roots-rock is as American as hot dogs and waterboarding. That's what happened to Rocks Off this past Independence Day when, while wandering around the Island taking pictures, we stumbled across Grizzly at Eric Tucker's Continental July 4 party. We were immediately won over by the band's electrified twang, which, when coupled with the smoke wafting in from the barbecue pit

  July 15, 2009

• Aquarium Drunkard (Snarkily) Remembers the Fabulous Satellite Lounge

  Deron NeblettThe Hollisters at the Fabulous Satellite Lounge, circa 2000For a solid decade, Washington Avenue's Fabulous Satellite Lounge was Houston's go-to spot for roots-rock, alt-country and pretty much anything else that might get covered in the late, recently resurrected online No Depression magazine. Though he was living in Austin throughout the Satellite's run (it closed in January 2003), Rocks Off remembers a Dick Dale/Drive-By Truckers gig that was especially sick. Turns out other peop

  July 16, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Blacktop Gypsy and Shurman

  Two fine bands who don't come through much are playing just blocks apart tonight. Dallas's Blacktop Gypsy will be knocking the audience out with their amazing harmonies and the virtuosity of fiddler Heather Stalling (wife of Max Stalling) and former Lake Jackson resident Rodney Pyeatt. Stalling was raised in a family of string players and has been doing fiddle contests since she was four years old. She's played with Ed Burleson, Mark David Manders, and others in the Texas music scene. Pyeatt wa

  July 30, 2009

• Upstairs, Downstairs: Drive-By Truckers, "The Living Bubba" and the Steep Price of Radioactive Ice Water

  ​After many, many years, Rocks Off is beginning to realize that it's possible to have a worthwhile musical experience nowhere near a stage. Ironically, the band responsible is Drive-By Truckers, whom we've seen live more often than probably any other save Wilco, Rev. Horton Heat and a handful of old Austin favorites like the Gourds, Grand Champeen and Lil Cap'n Travis. Our history with the Truckers goes back at least a decade, when they used to blow in from Athens, Georgia, and wreck Austin's

  August 21, 2009

• The Living Bubba

  August 27, 2009

• Bayou Beat: A 15-Foot Sculpture of George Jones' Head, $10 House of Blues Tickets, Free Tontons Show, etc.

  ​Heavy metal comedy troupe Steel Panther has cancelled tonight's Warehouse Live show. What's on VH-1 Classic? Tennessee-born artist Wayne White is crafting a 15-foot puppet head in the likeness of Saratoga-born honky-tonk legend George Jones. Entitled "Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep" - a reference to Jones' song "Ragged but Right" - and appropriately positioned on its side, asleep, the outsized bust is patterned after the flat-topped Possum circa 1950. The installation opens Thu

  August 26, 2009

• Rocks Off Is Going to Become a Kings of Leon Fan Today If It Kills Us

  ​Rocks Off has always been a little puzzled we're not more of a Kings of Leon fan. It definitely puts us in the minority when it comes to our social circle, because everyone from cranky music critics and their musician sons to, well, pretty much every female friend or acquaintance we've got is in the tank for these Tennessee studs.Once upon a time, so were we. Rocks Off thoroughly enjoyed the Kings' 2003 debut Youth and Young Manhood, particularly opener "Red Morning Light," "Molly's Chambers"

  October 6, 2009

• Bayou Beat: Half Price Live Nation Tickets, Last Call for Photo Contest, First Call for Poster Exhibit, Final "They, Who Sound" (For Now) This Sunday

  ​ Live Nation's weekly Wednesday "No Service Fee" ticket offer is pretty stiff this week: Buy one ticket for dozens of shows at House of Blues or Verizon Wireless Theater - such as Alice Cooper, O.A.R., Jewel, Goodie Mob, Bob Saget, Drive-By Truckers, Hanson, Peaches, Stryper, Zappa plays Zappa and many more - and get another one free. Or buy two and get 'em both at half price. (And they tell us we sucked at math in school.) As always, today only; more information at www.livenation.com.Speakin

  October 7, 2009

• Season of the Witch

  October 22, 2009

• Taking That La-Z-Boy Out for a Drunken Spin? Don't Forget the Tunes!

  Where are the cup holders?​As part of our court-appointed public service, we at Rocks Off don't condone driving while intoxicated. But if you must get behind the wheel after having a few, there are far worse things to be driving than a La-Z-Boy. From Yahoo! news this morning: "A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. A criminal complaint says 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left a bar in the northern Minnesota town of Proctor on h

  October 23, 2009

• Drive-By Truckers

  October 29, 2009

• Aftermath: The Pogues Destroy House of Blues, and Rocks Off Is Ready to Move On

  Photos by Daniel KramerThis is about how we feel this morning.​Attention budding music writers, assuming there are still a few of you left who think getting into shows for free is a fair trade for your health, well-being, a decent paycheck and reasonably normal social life: It's not. It's pretty much the opposite. If you choose to go down that road, like we have, the payoffs get smaller as the physical, mental and social price of this life (and lifestyle) gets steeper. Once you reach your mid-

  October 30, 2009