Joe Ely

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 >>

Last Night: Ryan Bingham at House of Blues

Ryan Bingham House of Blues March 10, 2013 It's tempting to label Ryan Bingham a "throwback," because nothing he does is especially modern. The former rodeo cowboy's brand of classic rock, country-blues, and flatland boogie feels like it blew in from out of the past, like a dust storm from out beyo ... More >>

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week

The Helio Sequence Walters, January 15 The Helio Sequence's indie cred was secured when affable hipster tastemaker Fred Armisen (SNL, Portlandia) recently named last year's Negotiations to his Top 10 list, alongside albums by Bob Mould, Guided by Voices and Dirty Projectors. Only the Portland duo's ... More >>

David Grissom

20 Essential Texas Albums From 2012

One of the quiet pleasures of (finally) putting 2012 to bed is mop-up duty. All year, I tried to keep a running list of albums released by Texas-based or Texas-related performers that I enjoyed listening to. Sunday night, I tallied them up. For some reason, besides that we've already handled the ye ... More >>

Behold the Texas 30, Plus Albums 40-31

At this point, hopefully you know what the Texas 30 is and why Rocks Off is counting down to the Top 30 Texas albums of the past 30 years, as determined by a statewide panel of professional music writers. The short answer is, of course, because we can, and because it was a great excuse to listen to ... More >>

The Texas 30: The Second Runners-Up, Albums 50-41

On our computer, Rocks Off has been looking at that damn Texas 30 spreadsheet so long our eyes are frosting over. Monday we said about 400 different albums were spread across the ballots we received from almost 25 music-media wags across Texas. We looked at the sheet again after that and it was actu ... More >>

Joe Ely at Dosey Doe Conroe: Not Your Average Shopping-Center Show

It has been said that the original Dosey Doe recalls a cozier, more tastefully curated Branson, Missouri. To that comparison I often joke that it's more like a giant Cracker Barrel or Saltgrass Steakhouse with world-class in-store performances. But Saturday night at Dosey Doe's new Conroe location ( ... More >>

The First Alt-Country Record? Flatlanders Rediscover The Odessa Tapes

A lot of stellar music came out of that flat land known as West Texas. Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Terry Allen, Guy Clark, and the Sparkles are just a few artists who found something in the wind, the dust, the heat, the cactus, the mesquite, the sandstorms, the blizzards, t ... More >>

Texas Guitar Great David Grissom Digs Way Down Deep

David Grissom has a résumé that most guitarists can only dream of. From his early days with Hank III in Killbilly, Grissom went on to playing, along with Jimmy Pettit and Davis McLarty, for Joe Ely from 1985 to 1991. A hell-for-leather band that could hang with the Clash or just about anyone else, ... 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 >>

Out Today: Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See, Black Lips Get Cosmic, Joe Ely Satisfied At Last

​This week of new releases brings a Mark Ronson-produced Black Lips album, the country debut of psychobilly idol Nick 13, an inventive career-spanning set from Randy Travis, and another Arctic Monkeys album, continuing their interesting progression from Brit garage brats into muscular rockers ... More >>

iFest's Second Weekend Brings It All Back Home

Jason WolterTexas Connection: Joe Ely, Lucinda Williams and Townes Van Zandt (not pictured)​See lots more iFest pictures from Saturday and Sunday (and some food) in our slideshows. Yes, it was hot at iFest this weekend. Houston hot. Sunday afternoon, partway through Lucinda Williams' surprisi ... 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 >>

Joe Ely Band, Mike Stinson

Joe Ely's Top Five Live Shots, By iFest's Rick Mitchell

Jason WolterJoe Ely (left) and David Grissom at iFest 2010​Next Friday, Feb. 11, the Joe Ely Band returns to Rockefeller Hall for the first time in more than a decade, since the legendary Washington Avenue showcase club stopped presenting live music to focus on the less risky business of priva ... More >>

Joe Ely, Bobby Womack Top Early 2011 Concert Picks

Jason WolterJoe Ely (left) and David Grissom at iFest 2010​Lonesome Onry and Mean got a Facebook event invitation Monday that caused us to panic and pull our credit card out so we could be sure we had a ticket. And in doing so, we realized that 2011 is upon us and we have some planning ahead t ... More >>

Five Great 2010 Albums Lonesome Onry And Mean Forgot

​Other than it just being a form of lazy journalism, one reason LOM hates making best-of lists is that there are always items that we forgot about, or considered but felt like they just barely didn't make it somehow. Then we wish we had included them. Here are a few more obscure 2010 albums th ... More >>

Roger Wood and Andy Bradley, Wendy Hundere Parnell

Slaid Cleaves

Top 10 Honorary Texas Musicians

West Vita​Right here, right now, and in print all damn week, you can read the Houston Press' interview with perhaps the hottest new band on the South 40, San Antonio's Hacienda (above). Whether or not they go on to become a South Texas Kings of Leon - Hacienda is also three brothers and a cous ... More >>

Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Butch Hancock

iFest Aftermath: Not Bad For a Non-Music Festival

Breaking iFest news: Nigeria's King Sunny Ade & his African Beats have been forced to cancel their entire U.S. tour, including a scheduled appearance Saturday at iFest. According to a press release from the group's PR firm, Rock Paper Scissors, the U.S. Embassy has refused to grant visas to two ... More >>

iFest Aftermath: Joe Ely Band Almost Pulls A Michael Jackson

Photos by Jason WolterMarcia Ball (left) and Joe Ely get their "Fingernails" dirty.​ Terry Allen once told Aftermath that Joe Ely was his favorite performer. Allen related that Ely would come over to his house in Lubbock and sit on his couch and try out new songs. According to Allen, it didn't mat ... More >>

The Gulf Coast At iFest: Joe Ely's Rattlesnake Rock, Soulful Latinology, Voodoo Brass And Creole Zydeco

Over the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be previewing acts performing at this year's Houston International Festival Saturday and Sunday and April 24-25 broken down by genre (loosely, anyway) and with a guest pick from a true insider: iFest Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell. We're doubling up ... More >>

No Longer Bulletproof

Reckless Kelly look to an old Idaho mentor on new album Somewhere in Time.

One to Grow On

What we'd like to see happen in Houston music this year.

This Just In: The Flatlanders Cancel Cactus In-Store Gig

This morning word came from Cactus Music, via a quick MySpace bulletin, that the Flatlanders' in-store performance set for Saturday afternoon has been cancelled. No reason was given for the band backing out of the midday appearance. The roots-rock supergroup, made up of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmor ... More >>

Tonight: The Magpies at the Continental Club

[A review from the Magpies' January Continental show is here.] Chris GrayMy son, a guitar plunker raised on huge doses of Rockpile and Joe Ely, tipped me to the Magpies. He saw them at Hayes Carll's Stingaree Festival about a year ago and pronounced them the hardest-rocking band of the whole ... More >>

The Magpies

The Shredder

One Show, One Sentence

Tonight: Joe Ely and Joel Guzman at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands

Weekend Music: No Money, No Problem

Joe Ely, Ryan Bingham

Joe Ely

One of the original kings of alt-country is experiencing a renaissance

Playbill: Albert & Gage

Unknown Legend

Roots renegade Joe Ely never achieved pop stardom, but that's all right by him...sorta

Joe Ely and Double Trouble

Joe Ely performs on Thursday, December 28, at Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak, 713-862-3838.

Joe Ely

Friday, June 9, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2524 Norfolk, 713-528-5999

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Thursday, May 26, at Zilkha Hall in the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby, 713-313-2525.

The Flatlanders

Saturday, February 28

Rallying Round Al

Houston pitches in to help an ailing Austinite; also: Dennis Kucinich hits the hip-hop hustings

Lise Liddell

Lovers' Moon (Self-released)

Rotation

Press Picks

Press Picks

Guit-in' Down

Postmarked Texas

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

Karp, the Good Crap

Ely, Allen and BBQ: The next best thing to Lubbock