Garth Brooks

RIP George Jones: Texas-Born Country Legend Dies at Age 81

George Jones, the Southeast Texas-born Country Music Hall of Famer whom most agree would be a face on Nashville's Mount Rushmore, has died at age 82. According to Fox News, repeating information from Jones' longtime publicist Kirt Webster, the singer died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center late ... More >>

RIP George Jones: Texas-Born Country Legend Dies at Age 81

George Jones, the Southeast Texas-born Country Music Hall of Famer whom most agree would be a face on Nashville's Mount Rushmore, has died at age 81. According to Fox News, repeating information from Jones' longtime publicist Kirt Webster, the singer died early Friday at Vanderbilt University Medica ... More >>

Last Night: Gary Allan at Reliant Stadium

Gary Allan Reliant Stadium February 26, 2013 Gary Allan is a complicated man. If no one understands him but his woman, it doesn't matter because she's already 30,000 feet above him, on an airplane bound somewhere far away from his ass. That's the premise of "Watching Airplanes," the 2007 hit that ... More >>

2012: The Year In Zapruder, A Recap Of My Detailed Video Recaps

I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line in 2012, the Zapruder-style analysis of viral videos became my thing. Much like you'd go to Clay Travis on SEC football or to Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback for the weekend that was in the NFL, when you the reader needed hardcore ... More >>

Musically Speaking, What Is the Best Zodiac Sign?

Sometimes some musicians just can't even be put in the same sentence as one another. Depending on people's musical preferences. It's hard to compare and can be a bit confrontational. But one thing is for sure the day on which someone is born can't be changed. And then that's where astrology comes in ... More >>

Top 10 Interesting Things From Ice-T's The Art of Rap

Friday night, Ice-T's new hip-hop documentary The Art of Rap opened in theaters nationwide. I went and watched it at the AMC Studio 30 at Westheimer and Dunvale. Here are ten things from the movie that are interesting and one thing that will be picked over: 10. Grandmaster Caz Is Ruthlessly, Seaml ... More >>

Strait Bonin' Turns Our Beloved Icon Into King Of Porn Country

Of course you all know that today is George Strait's 60th birthday, and the King Of Country just announced that he is coming back to RodeoHouston next spring for a March 17th date with Martina McBride and the Randy Rogers Band. What a great end that will be to a torrid week at SXSW in Austin. This w ... More >>

Darrell Scott: Loving Life Way Outside The Nashville Mainstream

Since moving to Nashville in 1995, 52-year-old Darrell Scott has had a career most who take that Hillbilly Highway to Music City USA would envy. A triple-threat talent, Scott was for years a session warhorse, a guy who could play about anything with strings on it as well as possessing a fantastic ea ... More >>

Jason Cassidy's 10 Country Songs You Should Hear Before You Die

Tonight traditional country upstart Jason Cassidy headlines Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon out in Clear Lake. The strip-center venue, known for it's pretty girls with painted-on jeans and copious amounts of trucks in the parking lot and a Bud Light in every hand, has been host to Cassidy many times b ... More >>

Predicting Your Future Half Time Show Performers

Photo By Marco Torres​All of the Super Bowl talk this week has given me a chance to ponder one of my favorite pop culture questions: how big do you have to be to perform at the Super Bowl half time show? When you consider the acts that have performed since the 2005 move to one act performances ... More >>

Last Night: Robert Earl Keen At House Of Blues

Robert Earl Keen House of Blues December 28, 2011 It sucks when your college roommate is more successful than you. Heaven knows Rocks Off was pleased as punch to hear ours had ended up blowing merchant marines for salvia in Vladivostok (just kidding, Doug!), but Robert Earl Keen's old front porch p ... More >>

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

Dia de las Tequilas

El Gran Malo is Houston's first infused-tequila bar, with a side of voodoo.

Tony Arata: The Dirt On "The Dance" And Four Other Hits

​This weekend, Conroe's Crighton Theater hosts another big-time writers in the round song-swap with Lee Roy Parnell, Tony Arata and J.D. Souther. Looking at their songwriting credits, which include "Love Without Mercy," "We All Get Lucky Sometimes," "On the Road," "Best of My Love," "New Kid i ... More >>

Batusis Is No Throwback

Cheetah Chrome and Sylvain Sylvain make rock and roll new again.

Inside "American Pie," Pop Music's Longest Allegory

​Rocks Off has always been a fan of symbolism, hidden meanings and puzzles in general, so besides Raymond Chandler, Stephen King and Larry McMurtry, our favorite form of "lit-rah-chah" is allegorical stuff like George Orwell's Animal Farm, William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Edgar Allan Po ... More >>

Vince Gill Heads Huge Weekend Of Music In Conroe

​This one has sorta snuck up on us, but this weekend Conroe is bulging with top quality Americana and country music. The centerpiece of the weekend is Saturday's writers-in-the-round at the Crighton Theater, which features Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill, big-time songwriter Tony Ara ... More >>

Aftermath: Keith Urban, Peculiar Superstar And Musician's Musician

Photos by Dave Rosales​ Keith Urban is a peculiar superstar. Take away the rugged good looks, and you'd still be left with a talented guitarist who, Tuesday night, gave every impression he'd be just as content jamming in the studio as headlining the rodeo before almost 60,000 adoring, possibly hyp ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Vince Gill Confirms for Conroe's Crighton Theater

Lise Liddell​ Lonesome Onry and Mean has been holding his breath for a few days, keeping a secret. We've been waiting on one last signature on the contracts before announcing one of the biggest shows ever at Conroe's Sounds of Texas music series. But Wednesday night we got an email from Mark Germi ... More >>

Happy Hour Scene: Shuck Daddy's

Photos by Paul Knight​Obsolete August, a cover band that plays live music at Shuck Daddy's on Wednesday nights, was in the middle of a rendition of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" when we walked in. To make matters worse, it was a slow-rolling version, almost like a love ballad. The song se ... More >>

Send Lawyers, Guns & Money: Nine Non-Boring Songs About the Work Attorneys Do

Rocks Off's local watering hole is frequented by a lawyer named Eugene Lawley, whom we always refer to as our Walker Percy. Lawley has more than a small literary bent - we hardly ever mention a book he hasn't read - and has a fine ear for song lyrics. His sister wrote themes for television and movi ... More >>

Artist of the Week: D.R.U.M., Who Will Not Be Challenging Moodafaruka to a Texas Death Match

Each Wednesday Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com.Caption TK​ D.R.U.M. is ar ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Taking a Shot at Cold Shot

www.myspace.com/houstonsbestrockband LOM's significant other got a MySpace friend request from local cover band Cold Shot yesterday. Now I have about as much use for cover bands as I do a dull pocket knife, but everyone has to make a living, I guess, and we aren't all qualified to be pole dancers at ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top 11

Photo by Ray Mickshaw / FOXPictured: Matt Giraud, exquisite gumline Traditionally, I've concluded the first Idol Beat of any given week with predictions as to who the American Idol judges or viewing public will send home the next night. This week I'm upending that, and predicting that no one will go ... More >>

Aftermath: Clint Black at RodeoHouston

Photos courtesy Houston Livestock Show & RodeoNot only does Clint Black know how to play to the home folks - after being introduced by his daughter Lily, he said hello to Tomball, Spring, Pasadena and his hometown Katy (but where, Aftermath would like to know, was Friendswood?) upon takin ... More >>

Robert Earl Keen

Tonight: Gary Nicholson at Dosey Doe

Lonesome, Onry and Mean: The Death of Honky-Tonk? (Part 1)

Spring Training: Draft Dennis Quaid!

Last Night: Van Halen at Toyota Center

Cowboy Up

Hank III

Tuesday, September 12, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

Jimmy Lafave

Friday, June 24, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-529-9899.

Webb Wilder, with Opie Hendrix and the Texas Tall Boys

Friday, March 18, at Dan Electro's, 1031 East 24th, 713-862-8707.

Queer Eye for the Country Guy

Have today's C&W stars been consulting with the Fab Five?

Drastic Unilateral Action

Universal hopes to JumpSTART flagging CD sales with aggressive price cuts. Who benefits the most?

Phantom of the Opry

Trying to get to the bottom of the Dr Pepper "Freaky Old Guy" mystery

Toro! Toro! Toro!

Home to pop queens and dance hall kings, Texas is still bullish about the music market

Letters

Music Mayhem, Poisoned Pooch, In the John

RodeoHouston: Some 'Splainin to Do

Secret correspondence from the rodeo

Silver and Gold (and Green)

Some artists make holiday records for the beauty, not the bucks

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

Letters

Rotation

Symphony of Setbacks

"Think" Not

A Texas housewife/songwriter claims country hunk Collin Raye stole her song

Hats Off

Dwight Yoakam's the last great country singer -- and he doesn't need a twang to prove it

Same Old Fun

Rotation

Rotation