Etta James

Acts You Shouldn't Miss at iFest's First Weekend

Rocks Off asked our staff members who will be covering the Houston International Festival for us this weekend to give us one or two choices for artists they don't want to miss. Forro In the Dark Bud Light World Music Stage, 2:30 p.m. Saturday/Center Stage, 6:30 p.m. Saturday As one of the first ac ... More >>

Those Are People Who Died, Died: Musical Passings of 2012

Rocks Off put it off as long as we could, because December has been a pretty rough month. It always is for music. (Hollywood, too.) But it's time to call the roll of people who played or sang their last note in 2012, plus a few who were just as instrumental offstage. Precious few corners of the mus ... More >>

Last Night: Pretty Lights at Bayou Music Center

Pretty Lights Bayou Music Center September 23, 2012 See lots more pics from Bayou Music Center Sunday in our slideshow. Having closed out Free Press Summer Fest to help ring in the unofficial start of summer it made it a strange sort of sense that Pretty Lights would return to Houston to help ring ... More >>

Gimme Gimme: Etta James Live at Montreux, 1993 DVD Review (And Giveaway)

You'll see Etta James in a series of performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, from her first European appearance (with a stylish big 'fro) to her triumphant 1993 concert, in the new DVD Etta James Live at Montreux, 1993. Visually, it's a slightly uneven release (the early footage hasn't been res ... More >>

The James Gang: Houston's Leela Updates the Great Etta

How do you remake a song as iconic as Etta James' "At Last"? Should you? That's the question Houston's Leela James had to confront on her new project Loving You More... In the Spirit of Etta James, a tribute to the R&B legend who died this past January. Rocks Off first encountered Leela when we w ... More >>

''Carlos Hernandez: Day of the Dead Rock Stars''

5 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Umbrella Man, Robert Cray, Etc.

A short one this week, for the long holiday weekend. But worthwhile. Outside-the-Loop gig of the weekend: The Mighty Orq at Main Street Crossing in Tomball tonight at 8 p.m.. Ask Orq about the band's European tour last month. Soulful Space City spokesman Nick Gaitan celebrates the release of his ... More >>

The End of the Road: Digital Mourning in 2012

At the Houston Press office, I am usually the first person who finds out when a celebrity or musician dies, usually from a wire or, these days, the fine folks at TMZ. Hell, sometimes even when I am away from my desk I have to be the bearer of bad tidings, like when Adam Yauch passed on a few weeks a ... More >>

Gemma Ray

Friday Night: Tedeschi Trucks Band at Verizon Wireless Theater

When the 11-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band caravan rolled into Houston, it was with the fresh knowledge that Etta James - a musical hero of singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi - has passed away earlier in the day. So it wasn't surprising that the group pulled out a tribute. "We've got to do something for E ... More >>

RIP Etta James: A Dynamic Voice And An R&B Legend

​Etta James, whose fiery voice helped influences generations of R&B singers, has died at the age of 73, after a long bout with leukemia. James, known best for her ballad "At Last", had been ill for sometime, and had went home to be with family just a few weeks ago around the holidays. Accord ... More >>

Etta James: A Closer Look Into One Of The Greatest Voices Ever Heard

Etta James, almost universally praised as one of the finest voices of our era, has passed away at 73. Ironically, Ms. James had been discovered and recorded by rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny Otis, who passed away only two days ago. Ms. James, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 ... More >>

Friday Night: Flo Rida at House of Blues

Photos by Marco Torres​Just before heading out to House of Blues on Friday, we sent the same text message to nine random friends: "Hey, I'm playing trivia and could really use some help. Quick, name a Flo Rida song," to which 8 out of 9 thumbed back the same three-letter response: "Low."

Capsule Stage Reviews: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical, Galveston! the Musical!, Guys and Dolls

The X Factor: A Host, A Pussycat Doll & A "Creep"

As I settled in to watch The X Factor last night, my husband asked me, "Who is that British guy?" and I said, "Um, that's Simon Cowell, honey. From American Idol? A show we watched for like, five years?" And my husband said, "Um, no, the other British guy - the host." And then I was all, "The host!? ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Farragut North, Goodbye Charlie, Kissless the Musical, Once Upon a Mattress, A Triumph of Love

Capsule Stage Reviws: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Once Upon a Mattress, Sylvia

Diva-licious

Music Box Theater brings big-city, high-style cabaret to Houston.

Sgt. Pepper & Three Other Bum Albums By Rock Icons

​It was 40 (four) years ago today - in the UK, and tomorrow in the U.S. - that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, history stopped, the Summer of Love began, and critics freaked the fuck out. When the Beatles released their LSD-soaked counterpunch to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds in June 1967, K ... More >>

Idol Beat: Austin, So Much To Answer For

​Rocks Off would like to apologize for last week's outrageous behavior by Pete Vonder Haar. He has been warned, and assures us he will never compare Marc Anthony to an extra from Dawn of the Dead again. Steven Tyler dropped an F-bomb on this week's audition episode, which definitely warrants ... 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 >>

Idol Beat: The Hollywood Shuffle Begins...

​Here we are in Hollywood, kids! Yes, the dingy, tourist-ridden section of Los Angeles that's become a handy way to package and sell the myth of stardom to the unsuspecting. Hollywood is so quintessentially American that if it didn't exist we would make it up as a place to put our dreams. Noth ... More >>

American Idol: The Hollywood Shuffle Begins...

​Here we are in Hollywood, kids! Yes, the dingy, tourist-ridden section of Los Angeles that's become a handy way to package and sell the myth of stardom to the unsuspecting. Hollywood is so quintessentially American that if it didn't exist we would make it up as a place to put our dreams. Noth ... More >>

Rocks Off Exclusive: Things Beyonce Will Be Doing on Her Break from Music

​ On top of everything else this week, sadly the news has come out that our beloved Beyonce is taking a break from music. Just when we need her the most, right? We miss B and Ms. Fierce already, and we're already speculating what she might get up to while taking her sabbatical away from the public ... More >>

Beyonce Leads 2010 Grammy Field With 10 Nominations

Beyonce leads all nominees for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards, reaping the benefits of her smash double album I Am... Sasha Fierce and her prominent role on the soundtrack to last year's Chess Records docudrama Cadillac Records, in which she appeared as an R&B diva from an earlier age, Etta Jame ... More >>

Aftermath: Depeche Mode's Black and Blue Celebration at The Woodlands

Photos by Eric Sauseda​ Far, far away from the group once known for bubbly synth-pop anthems like "Just Can't Get Enough" and "Everything Counts," Depeche Mode circa 2009 has pressed its small army of keyboards and electronics into the service of primal urges and raw sexuality. Not terribly surpri ... More >>

Aftermath: Beyonce at Toyota Center

Photos by Daniel Kramer Imagine, if you will, being invited to the most lavish party, held just for you and about 15,000 of your closet friends. The host, a beauty from McGregor, whose only mission is to give her guests 100 percent of herself and satisfy their needs for a night of entertainment. In ... More >>

This Week In Beyonce: B Acts... Like What?

Rocks Off can't argue with the fact that Beyonce Knowles is a stone-cold fox when she gets on the microphone and belts out a song, dripping in glitter and wearing a barely-there outfit. Her voice is at once menacing and thundering, but also femininely fragile. Plus she has to be super-cool behind th ... More >>

Soul Nite

From Motown to the Orange Show, that’s quite a trip

Aftermath: One Wild Weekend

Craig Hlavaty The Imani School Student Jazz Ensemble Craig Hlavaty Erykah BaduRocks Off is still in the very early recovery stages from this weekend, which was one of the most satisfying musical whirlwinds he's been sucked into in quite some time. He started off Friday evening at  ... More >>

At Last: Beyonce Serenades President & Mrs. Obama

Beyonce stepped back into her Cadillac Records character Etta James to sing "At Last," and sing the hell out of it, for President and Mrs. Obama's first dance at last night's HD Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. It's hard to imagine either a better singer or song for the occasion - s ... More >>

Cadillac Records Can't Handle the Truth

Spinning Blues into Lies

Beyoncé's Back

Alter ego (and two movies) in tow

Is Your Band in Trouble?

Heads Up

Janiva Magness

Noise for Toys

Mucky Duck does it for Christmas

Houston's Very Best Songs Ever

...otherwise known as the H-Town 20

Tianna Hall & the Mexico City Jazz Trio

Lost in the Stars

Just Released CDs

The O.G. of Love

Johnny "Guitar" Watson gets his due with a terrific two disc set

Tony Joe White

Friday, September 30, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Etta James

Tuesday, April 27

The Gossip

Saturday, February 7

Club Directory

Murder in Small Town X

A cheese maker bites it in Actors Theatre's melodrama

Internalizing the Blues

Sound Check

Nails in the Coffin

Five decades of Chess Records lead to a blues stalemate

Rotation

Blues Kudos & Burb Buzz

Handy Houston bluespeople, and the next great wave from -- Katy