Joe Cocker

Capsule Stage Reviews: Chinglish, MBTV, Ravenscroft, Six Degrees of Separation, There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, Tribute

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 >>

Zapruder-Style Breakdown Of The Worst National Anthem Performance Ever

My general rule of thumb when it comes to snark or out and out ridicule is that kids are off limits. I have three kids of my own, and they're not perfect. I get it. However, there are rare exceptions, and on those occasions what you'll usually find is that any derision of young people doing offensiv ... More >>

Joe Cocker, Huey Lewis & the News

NRBQ's Al Anderson Now a World Famous Headliner

Above: Al Anderson (l) and World Famous Headliners in the studio. There are people in Nashville, highly successful people, the average fan or casual music listener has little if any clue about. Chris Stapleton comes to mind. Mike Henderson is another. Everyone in Nashville knows and admires them, f ... More >>

Pollstar: Woodlands Pavilion Now World's No. 3 Amphitheater

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, site of Sunday night's aromatic 311 show, has long been one of the country's busiest concert venues, usually ranking at or near the top in annual attendance. Now it's officially one of the busiest in the world. In concert trade publication Pollstar's new survey ... More >>

The Secret History of "You Are So Beautiful"

Six years ago today, on June 6, 2006, the world lost Houston-born musician Billy Preston. The session man, kind soul and all-around secret weapon was in the mix for some of the best and brightest moments of rock's heyday. The man backed up Little Richard and Sam Cooke, and as a child prodigy he play ... More >>

2012 Summer Guide: It's a Scorcher

A summer concert season to melt your face off.

Nicky Hopkins: Classic Rock's Go-To Piano Man

...and on piano... Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock's Greatest Session Man By Julian Dawson Though his name is known mostly to classic-rock liner note readers, even the casual fan has heard his piano work: The wistful opening of Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful," the pumping keys on ... More >>

Upcoming: Joe Cocker, The Cult, The Lumineers, The Slackers, Jason Mraz, Etc.

Blind Pilot: Sun., July 15. Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak, Houston. The Bouncing Souls, The Menzingers, Luther: Sat., June 23. Fitzgerald's The Bright Light Social Hour: Fri., May 25. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Broncho: Thu., June 28. Fitzgerald's Cassandra Wilson: Sat., Oct. 20. C ... More >>

Some Questions About the Texas Music Awards 2012 Ballot

If you think we were flabbergasted by songwriter Bob Cheevers touting his election as 2011 Songwriter of the Year in the Texas Music Awards sponsored by mytexasmusic.com and "sanctioned" (a hedge word that appears frequently in relation to the Texas Music Awards) by the Texas Academy of Music (high ... More >>

Fush Yu Mang: Future Charity Stunts By '90s Has-Beens

Smash Mouth: "Nobody can eat 50 eggs!"​Today, we learned that Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell will eat 24 eggs, in any style he wants, for a $10,000 donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. That's a pretty sweet deal, because we like scrambled eggs with cheese and deviled eggs. And om ... More >>

Bobby Keys: iFest Nabs Rolling Stones Sax Maniac

The Rolling StonesBobby Keys takes an Exile on Main Street breather, Nellcote, France, 1971​Born in Lubbock and raised just east in Slaton, Joe Ely's home town, saxophonist Bobby Keys left Lubbock in 1960 looking for kicks. At 14, he was playing with Bob Dylan influence, Bobby Vee, before movi ... More >>

Idol Beat: I Do Not Like That will.i.am

​Only nine hopefuls remain in this, the 10th season of American Idol (AKA the Greatest Talent Competition Since the Battle of the Bands at San Dimas High School). It's time to separare the wheat from the chaff, the post-adolescents from the mere adolescents, those who are "in it to win it" fro ... More >>

Idol Beat: Idol Worship

Fox​The Daily Beast had a story up yesterday about how this season of American Idol might be the best ever: This year, the contenders have already proven energetic, and the audience is responding, with half a dozen developing breakout followings across the Internet, even before the finals hav ... More >>

Soul City: The Amazing Jazz Crusaders

Black History Month is always a great time to recall some of Houston's greatest musical innovators and leaders. Rocks Off will highlight some of them during the remainder of February. "Hey, let's get back to that down-and-dirty old-school chicken-shack sound" mosaicrecords.com​While Houston ... More >>

Idol Beat: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

American Idol: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

Tom Petty Reschedules Woodlands Date For September 24

​ This JUST off the wire... Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers are taking a little longer than anticipated to finish their new album, Mojo, and have rescheduled several early dates of the accompanying tour, including May 16 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, which is now scheduled for Septembe ... More >>

The Domino Effect

Britain's The Big Pink fuses soul, drum machines and shoegaze on A Brief History of Love.

Distant Early Warning: Ben Folds, Caribou, Lupe Fiasco, Randy Travis, Steve Martin, Etc.

​Authority Zero, Voodoo Glow Skulls: Fri., April 9. Wired Live. "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live": Fri., April 16. House of Blues. "Bamboozle Road Show" With Hanson, Good Charlotte, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cartel, Boys Like Girls, All Time Low: Fri., May 28. Verizon Wireless Theater. Ben Folds: Sat ... More >>

Thursday Is World Toilet Day; We Celebrate Without Using An Expletive In The Headline

​Hair Balls would like to take the time to discuss a very serious matter: pooping. Specifically, pooping in a toilet. More specifically, not having a toilet in which to poop. It's a serious situation that affects 2.5 billion people in developing nations, according to the World Toilet Organization ... More >>

He Said She Said: A Stripper Soundtrack, Part 2

You can leave your hat on...but get the rest of that kit off fast. The ladies don't mess around when it comes to superficially hot, oiled-up dudes (of questionable sexuality, but does that really matter?) getting naked on the stage at La Bare. But because the musical content at places like Chippend ... More >>

Hello, Houston!

Noise breaks down the months of live music ahead

Rodney Crowell, Forever the Houston Kid

Gasoline Dreams

Sizing up the summer's classic-rock scorecard

Season in the Sun

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

The Houston 100: The Master List

Across the Universe

Run for your life if you can, little girl: Julie Taymor's '60s-set musical is a bust

The Houston 100: From Sir Douglas Quintet to Guy Clark

Crawdaddy! Is Back

The rock magazine returns

Playbill: Jimmy Lafave

Don't Fear the Reaper

The annual return of the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter

The Raw Power of Really Smooth Music

Climb aboard the Yacht Rock revolution at this week's Michael McDonald/Steely Dan show

Double Vision

Jess and Lisa Origliasso give teen pop a harmonic jolt as the Veronicas

A Pack of Mutts

The lone wolves of 2005

Al Green

Everything's OK

Free Will

Another SNL vet may be the next Bill Murray. Seriously.

Rockin' Drama Mama

Mary McBride makes the transition from aspiring playwright to alt-country songstress

Green Party

A child of the liberal folk movement, Dar Williams isn't above rocking out

...Newman!

With a sound as fat as Texas, David "Fathead" Newman returns home

Soul Brother No. 1

Top 10 reasons why Ray Charles is a genius

Rotation

Busy Body

Letters

Tangled Web

From Mexico to L.A. via Alaska and El Paso, Tito Larriva has seen it all -- and more

Rotation

A Geek with a Guitar

Edwin McCain wants to please with his songs. You got a problem with that?

Rotations

Critic's Choice

Out of the Bars