Ernest Tubb

Proud UH Alum Larry Gatlin: If You Don't Like His Songs, "I Still Wrote Them"

Rocks Off reached native West Texan and proud UH alumnus Larry Gatlin, of 97.1 Country Legends mainstays Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band, first by phone at his hotel in Colorado, then again by phone the next day in San Antonio. Gatlin plays the Dosey Doe's "Big Barn" in The Woodlands Sunda ... More >>

Top 10 Heartbreaking Holiday Covers

Last week we took a look at some of the most holiday spirit-dampeningly awful songs ever recorded. We aren't quite done ruining your holiday spirit just yet however, as this week we have compiled ten of the saddest holiday cover songs ever recorded. Rewind: The 10 Worst Holiday Cover Songs Ever ... More >>

The 10 Funniest & Weirdest Country Song Titles

Country music has come a long way as far as popularity goes over the years, from the likes of such bygone greats as Ernest Tubb and Eddy Arnold to current favorites Sugarland and Dierks Bentley. But it has always had some rather... interesting-sounding song titles to grace listeners' ears. Shall we ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 4

Our fourth installment of Houston-area country-music pioneers honored with inclusion in the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music details the last of an amazing group of local musicians from the '30s, '40s, and '50s who left their brand on the people's music. While the Appalachian and ... More >>

Houston Scores Big Time In Latest Editon Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 2

Our second installment of Houston connections in the recently published second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music is a truly monumental list of writers, performers and performances that show that while Houston may not have been the musical business center that Nashville became, the Bayou C ... More >>

Happy Birthday Joe Ely: The Lubbock Flash Turns 65

Courtesy LC Media​I was living in Holland in 1977 when my younger brother, who had attended Wayland Baptist University on a track scholarship until booze and girls were discovered in his dorm room, came for a visit. While living in Plainview, his stomping grounds had been the gin joints of Lub ... More >>

Thanks A Lot: An Introduction To The Late Great Ernest Tubb

Today would have been country legend and pioneer Ernest Tubb's 98th birthday. Born in 1914 in Crisp, Texas near Dallas, his hometown is now designated as ghost town. For forty years, Tubb was a mainstay on the country circuit and the charts, with songs like "Walking the Floor Over You", "Waltz Acros ... More >>

Top Five Christmas Movies From Alternate Realities

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn GrayChristmas in an alternate dimension has the potential to be significantly more badass.​If, as so many quantum physicists and dubious science-fiction shows suggest, there are infinite alternate dimensions, then of course that means there are infinite poss ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: "Nowhere Man" and Houstonian-Turned-Superproducer Frank Liddell's Other Early Favorites

Houston native Frank Liddell, whose Nashville production credits include roots-rocker Chris Knight, Texas music phenom Jack Ingram, budding megastar Miranda Lambert, and his wife Lee Ann Womack, has a surprising set of early music impressions. "I can't remember the first one but there were a lot of ... More >>

How Texas and Alabama Match Up... Musically

​ For once, Rocks Off is grateful for this sinus-splitting headache (thanks, Mike Stinson!), because it gives us something to focus on besides the fact that we are crawling out of our skin waiting for kickoff tonight. At this point, sports pundits have analyzed the Longhorns and Crimson Tide to wi ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Hank Snow, "Movin' On" to Altman's Nashville... and George Wallace

"You switched your engine now I ain't got time For a triflin' woman on my main line 'Cause I'm movin' on, you done your daddy wrong I've warned you twice, now you can settle the price 'Cause I'm movin on - Hank Snow, "I'm Movin' On" Thanks to earnest guidance from his parents and maternal grandmoth ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Grandfathers, Part 2

He Said Grandpa Songs He Said was lucky to have spent twenty-five years on Earth with his Grandpa Hlavaty, who passed away in the summer of 2008 of a brain hemorrhage. The man was arguably one of the biggest musical influences in He Said's life. The intrepid and stealthy Grandpa Gonzalez is kicking ... More >>

Dive Bars

A handcrafted tour of the best, most obscure places to lean on a stool in Houston.

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas, Part 2: "Trinity"

[Note: This week Rocks Off is looking at the musical heritage, highs and lows, for each of the five possible states that might result should Texas secede from the U.S. like Gov. Rick Perry wants it to. Yesterday we began with the Panhandle/West Texas "Palo Duro" territory; today it's northeastern qu ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: R.I.P. Vern Gosdin

Foreground: Faron Young (leaning on piano), Tammy Wynette (at piano). Back row (l-r): Unidentified man, Hank Thompson, George Jones, Vern Gosdin, Marty Robbins "Don't you think you should've called To tell me you were coming down Oh, you look so out of place On this troubled side of town" - Vern Go ... More >>

SXSW Update: Watch Out for Devo; Peter, Bjorn & John; Justin Townes Earle; Hungry Villagers and More

Devo on the BBC's Top of the Pops 2 With the big bad final band announcement coming next week, all is quiet on the SXSW front. For now. This past week was slow, with the biggest names confirmed being Devo, Cursive, Peter, Bjorn & John, and Justin Townes Earle. Devo will be clos ... More >>

Junior Brown

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Jon Byrd Tunes Up Country

Just How Texan are Hayes Carll and Miranda Lambert?

Weekend Music: Setting Things Straight

Boogie Chillun

Introducing…Lonesome Onry and Mean

Marty Stuart's American Odyssey Does Houston

R.I.P. Porter Wagoner

Starry Lullabye

Ailing Houston-area native David Schnaufer has taken the Appalachian dulcimer to the mountaintop

BR5-49

Wednesday, February 15, the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

Let It Blow

The Original Dirty Rapper is still coming up with new ways to scandalize

Letters

Playbill

Playbill

Defending the Dirty Thirty

And coping with Yankee slander

Stone Country

Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys spark up some primo Western swing and trad C&W

He's Gone Country

Jason Allen finds himself in the music he once tried to escape

Guit With It

Turning a pedal steel into a trombone, and other tricks of Junior Brown's trade

Mount Bonnell Breakdown

The South Austin Jug Band's swingy bluegrass is mullet-free music

Racket

At Tim Murrah's Metropol, it's about music, not style

Racket

Pinpointing when Texas music jumped the shark

On the Off-Road Again

Country legend Ray Price continues to take the path less traveled

Music Awards Winners

The votes are in! See who you picked as winners in the HPMA 2000

Playbill

Hot 'n' Heavy: Sinis. Also, Eugene Chadbourne

Night & Day

May 20 - 26, 1999

Rotation

Holiday Gestures

Honky-Tonk History

He had 78 hits over 50 years and revolutionized country music. Now, Hank Thompson gets a new green light.

Vintage Sounds

Wayne Hancock is a new-fashioned guy with old-fashioned desires

Same Old Waylon

The most rebellious thing Waylon Jennings has done is not change

Guit-in' Down

Full Nelson

With a new disc and a boxed history, Willie Nelson wonders who'll buy his memories

Rotation

Pure-D Purty

Don Walser's yodeling can bring tears, even to the eyes of a Nashville record exec