Eric Clapton

Saturday Night: Eric Clapton at Toyota Center

Eric Clapton, the Wallflowers Toyota Center March 16, 2013 As the house lights went up on the near-capacity crowd at the Toyota Center, there was an audible collective gasp. Thousands of concertgoers looked at each other with wide, stunned eyes. Could this be possible? Was it a cruel joke? Would i ... More >>

Opening for Clapton Makes the Wallflowers Glad All Over

When listeners first heard the hypnotic, disco-inflected "Reboot the Mission," the first single off the Wallflowers' recent Glad All Over CD, they could probably be forgiven for the momentary shock. But upon closer listen, the song's roots were more firmly planted in Clash numbers like "The Magnific ... More >>

The 5 Worst Disasters In Benefit Concert History

Benefit concerts are great. The practice of bands playing to raise money for a cause can be as local as helping a fellow unsigned musician pay for their son's hospital bills to as international as world hunger. Though we may pinch our noses at the perceived sanctimoniousness of people like Bono and ... More >>

Steve Winwood

Paul McCartney's Wonderful, Bizarre McCartney II

The Song Is a Lie: We Wanted the Best. We Didn't Get It.

This week it's all about exposing song titles that are complete and outright blatant lies. So far the Beatles have let us down. George Harrison's guitar wasn't gently weeping, it was breathing easy in a corner while Eric Clapton's rig wailed like a broken-hearted banshee all over the "White Album." ... More >>

The Song Is a Lie: The White (Lie) Album

Song titles should speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Take it from me, I'm the guy who co-wrote "You Cannot Kill David Arquette" and he's still completely undeniably alive despite multiple ninja attacks. That's called credibility, children, and you might want to take notes. ... More >>

10 Iconic Final Concerts Plus The End Of Beatlemania

The Beatles' concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park 46 years ago today was the end of an era for the band. Except for a famously unannounced appearance on top the Apple building two and a half years later, it would be the final live performance that the Fab Four would ever play together. It w ... More >>

Digital Endorsement: 10 Artists Who Will Gladly Mention Your Business On Twitter

As a culture it appears that we've stopped caring about the idea of selling out. Whether it's because we've learned that record sales don't always pay the bills, have started seeing artists as humans instead of paragons of creative integrity, or simply stopped caring, artists saddling up with corpor ... More >>

Six-String Pawn Stars: Top 10 Famous Stolen Guitars

Tom Petty got a real kick in the balls late last week when he discovered that his vintage blond 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTV Junior had been stolen from a California soundstage where the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour. Three other vintage guitars owned by b ... More >>

Don't Play It Again, Sam: More Terrible Remakes Of Great Songs (By The Original Artists)

Rocks Off covered Eric Clapton's "Layla" and several other awful updates in January. Sometimes an artist hits it big with one great song. Real big, real fast. Before they know it, they're the hot-button item, on the lips of the hip and influential across the world. Of course, a sudden rise to fame ... More >>

Tears In Heaven: The 10 Best Songs To Come Out Of Tragedy

Since the dawn of time, great art has been birthed out of great tragedy, happening numerous times with playwrights, artists, and musicians. In many ways, expressing grief through music serves as a healing agent that gets the artist through tough things such as the loss of a loved one. It also helps ... More >>

A Very Special Message: The 10 Best Rock-Star Public Service Announcements

Ever since the Ad Council introduced the "Rosie the Riveter" poster, public service announcements have either warned us of the dangers of such risky behaviors as having unsafe sex, as well as reasons you should vote, or even to spay and neuter your pets. As rock and roll became more popular, artists ... More >>

5 Most Needless Song Updates

We got into rock journalism from being a local musician, so we understand both sides of the industry pretty well. We've recorded songs that later-on we wish we'd done very differently, and the temptation to go back and re-try for perfection can be very overpowering. Take it from us, though, do not f ... More >>

Five on Five: Fender vs. Gibson, Who Had the Better Players?

​For guitar players, it's an age old question: are you a Fender guy or a Gibson guy? Over the years since both companies became popular in rock music, many other guitar manufacturers have made inroads, but none have been able to surpass the power and tradition of these two giants in the guitar ... More >>

And, Uh, Um, OOPS: The Third Members Of Great Musical Trios You Probably Can't Name

​Last night we all watched as Governor Rick Perry blanked on the third department he would do away with if he was elected president. It was one of those moments - a la Scanners - when we all tensely waited for his head to explode, figuratively. Of course we love the guy and he's too precious t ... More >>

1986: Best Musical Year Ever?

​For almost two weeks now, Rocks Off has been obsessed with the year exactly 25 flips of the calendar backward from this one. It started when Steve Earle did one of his "Time Machine" shows, where the singer-songwriter who plays House of Blues Wednesday spotlights a dozen or so of his favorite ... More >>

Top 10 Songs To Leave Out Of Your Wedding Reception

​'Tis the summer season for tying the knot. But curse the occasion for creating the ultimate breeding ground for bad music - wedding receptions. It's one thing to unplug the jukebox in an act of defiance or flee a venue playing bad songs (I've done all of the above), but one doesn't exactly h ... More >>

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 >>

Who's Too Old To Rock & Roll?

​It's entirely possible that the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney will each go on tour this year. With ages ranging from 63 to 69 among the four remaining core Stones, the band is obviously the oldest continuing touring rock act, capable of breaking ticket records almost 50 years into the gam ... More >>

The Best Concert Movies Of All Time

​A quick note before CHL starts this hlist. We define a concert movie as a flick that documents one or more shows on a tour. More narrative-oriented rock flicks like D.A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan mash note Don't Look Back, Charles Peterson's grunge chronicle Hype!, and of course the lighthearted ... More >>

Six Songs That Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

​If there's one musician whose advice is worth heeding, it ought to be Johnny Cash. But when the Man in Black sang "Don't Take Your Guns To Town," a whole lot of musicians must not have been listening. Perhaps they were tuning in one of Cash's other songs that takes a different point of view - ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Biggest Post-Drug Comebacks

​The list of drug casualties in rock and roll is a long and sad one. All the suicides, car crashes and the stray gang-related murder are outweighed by the amount of people who just can't stop putting junk into their system, or at least moderate it to a point where they aren't lying cold on a h ... More >>

Ten Iconic Musical Nicknames, And 25 You May Never Guess

​You know what sucks? Getting saddled with a really awkward family nickname when you are younger and it following you until it takes a frenzied freak-out to stop it. We were once called "Pooter" by our mother until an eight-year-old Rocks Off gave her a terse look right before third grade star ... More >>

Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival 2010

The greatest of guitar greats dazzle during a two-hour film documentary

iFest Closes To An Afro-Cuban-Reggae Beat

Eggs/ breakfastontour.comBaba Maal​ If the first weekend of the Houston International Festival felt like a detour down Canal Street, the second evoked the festival's emphasis on "Spotlighting the Caribbean." Summer picked this weekend to descend two months early, as it tends to do, resulting in in ... More >>

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Eyeballin': The Black Crowes' Warpaint Live

To celebrate the release of 2008's Warpaint, the Black Crowes played the entire record straight through for a special series of shows. Already released as a 2-CD set, this DVD of one performance shows why the Crowes are such an effective live unit. Two things immediately jump out. Singer Chris Robin ... More >>

Eyeballin': John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band Live in Toronto '69

It's a story well-told in Beatles lore. Reeling from the Fab Four's unraveling, a bored John Lennon accepted an invitation to perform at the Toronto Rock 'n Roll Revival show in September 1969. He quickly formed an ad hoc group of friends (wife Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass ... More >>

Remembering 1969, Part 3: The Beginning of the End for the Beatles

Note: see Part 1 here and Part 2 here. For most of 1969, the Beatles were pretty much comatose - after the disastrous Get Back sessions (which would later spawn the Phil Spector-produced Let It Be), they reconvened to the studio that spring to record the music for what would become their final reco ... More >>

Local Motion: Top Sellers at Cactus Music, Sound Exchange, Soundwaves, Sig's Lagoon and Vinal Edge

Cactus Music 2110 Portsmouth, 713-526-9272 www.myspace.com/cactusmv1. Ryan Bingham, Roadhouse Sun 2. Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey & the Groo-Grux King 3. Steve Earle, Townes 4. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest 5. Elvis Costello, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane 6. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, Live at Madiso ... More >>

Lost Tuneage: Jerry Lynn Williams

Who Dat? www.myspace.com/jerrylynnwilliamsI'd forgotten about Fort Worth rocker and soul man Jerry Lynn Williams until the other day when I was reading Eric Clapton's autobiography. Warner Bros. had returned Clapton's tapes from sessions in Montserrat and, to keep his Warner's deal, Clapton ... More >>

The Mighty Orq: To the Bone

Drenched In Blog: National One-Hit Wonder Day

Get Lit: Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me by Pattie Boyd

Another Bump

Ten of the best coke anthems, plus a shortlist for the Cocaine Hall of Fame

B.B. King

B.B. King performs on Thursday, June 21, at The Grand 1894 Opera House, 2020 Post Office, Galveston, 800-821-1894. See HouStoned Rocks, the Houston Press music blog, for more about B.B. King.

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Tech? No!

An imaginary history of electronic music

Swell Guy

A Thin Line...

Introducing the most hated men in rock (besides Sting)

Letters

Roll Over, Eric Clapton. And Tell Stevie Ray the News.

The blues is back -- rawer and louder (and punker) than ever

Playbill

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers

Eric Clapton

Reptile (Reprise)

Average John

Rotation

No More Same Old, Same Old

Buddy Guy finally gets the respect he's always wanted

Rotation

Press Picks