Joe Washington

Milton Hopkins & Jewel Brown

The Rest Of The Best: Houston's Top 8 Blues Clubs

Like our neighbors over at Eating Our Words, Rocks Off would like to tell you about some places that didn't quite make the cut in our few most recent Best of Houston issues (categories change every year, mostly), but that are worthy on their own merits; today we begin our weekly journey with blues c ... More >>

9 Cool & Cheap Things To Do This Weekend

Dozens of local rock, blues, jazz, folk and jam acts take over Dan Electro's Guitar Bar in the Heights for the completely free annual South by Due East festival, tonight through Monday. Door times are 5 p.m. Tonight and Monday, 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. DJ duo Ceeplus Bad Knives and Mr. Castillo ... More >>

Your 2011 Houston Press Music Awards Winners

Photo By Marco TorresAll night, attendees to the awards show signed a special banner for Chris Gray.​Check out our slideshow of this year's Houston Press Music Awards winners. It was a dandy of an evening last night at Warehouse Live as we handed out those silver records to some of Houston's ... More >>

2011 HPMA Showcase: Shuttles, Sideshows and The Beans

Checkout the slideshows of the bands and the crowd at the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase. Photos by Jason WolterThe Beans at Ben's Beans...that's not a joke.​We've attended every Houston Press Music Awards showcase since moving to Houston in 2003, and while each has varied slightly from ... More >>

2011 HPMA Showcase: Lonesome, Onry and Mean Edition

Checkout the slideshows of the bands and the crowd at the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase. Photo by Jason WolterTexas Johnny Brown​I spent most of the my Houston Press Music Awards day circulating between five contiguous venues: Dirt Bar, Ben's Beans, Reserve 101, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar ... More >>

2011 Music Awards Showcase

Your guide to the bands and venues.

The 2011 Houston Press Music Award Nominees

​Took us long enough, right? It's been so long since we've had the Houston Press Music Awards, which were last handed out the evening of August 11, 2010, that we almost forgot we were having them. Not really. How could we? If our numbers are correct, in the two weeks this year's nomination b ... More >>

Midtown Throwdown

Your guide to our very first Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest.

Rocks Off Giving Away Loads Of BestFest Passes

Marc Brubaker (Little Joe Washington)/Courtesy photo (Cake)/Marco Torres (Slim Thug)/Mark C. Austin (Tontons)​That's a neat collage of some of the folks playing this weekend's Best of Houston® BestFest, huh? We thought so. But we have a hunch some of you would rather see them in person. Well ... More >>

Old School: Class of 2011

Inside this week's cover photo shoot

Old School

Musicians in their 70s and 80s are keeping Houston's traditional blues scene real.

Little Joe Washington Could Use A Hand, Perhaps A Home

Brittanie SheyLittle Joe Washington at Walter's On Washington, April 2010​Treasured Houston bluesman Little Joe Washington, who will play a happy-hour set at the Continental Friday, may be on the verge of becoming homeless again. Washington, who was in the hospital for an extended stay last ... More >>

Dialtone Records Showcase

Little Joe Washington Now Feeling Well Enough To Record Again

UPDATE (5:40 p.m.): Boondocks' Shawn Bermudez says Little Joe will resume his Tuesday residency at the bar tomorrow night. Little Joe Washington, all smiles as usual, and John Egan (right)Steve Christensen​Only a few weeks out of the hospital, Little Joe Washington took another step back this ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Returns To The Stage Saturday At Continental

sigslagoon.com​Just out of the hospital a few days, local bluesman Little Joe Washington will be back onstage Saturday at his old stomping grounds, the Continental, for the Main Street club's free tenth anniversary celebration. After a successful intestinal surgery last month and a stint in ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Continues To Improve

Reg Burns​Rocks Off was heartened to hear that recovering bluesman Little Joe Washington's health continues to improve following two surgeries for an obstructed bowel in the past month or so. Washington's friend Reg Burns went to visit him Sunday evening at Quentin Mease Community Hospital (3 ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Released From Hospital Into Rehab Facility

​Rocks Off just received a brief but fortuitous update on the condition of diminutive bluesman Little Joe Washington from his friend Reg Burns. As expected, Washington has been released from Ben Taub Hospital and is now in Quentin Mease Community Hospital, a rehabilitation facility. Washington ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Hospitalized In Ben Taub ICU

[Updated at 2:33 p.m. with information from Reg Burns, who saw Joe at the hospital Monday and has more information on his condition.] Mark Britain Little Joe Washington at House of Blues, May 8, 2010​Little Joe Washington is in the intensive care unit of Ben Taub Hospital after undergoing e ... More >>

Upcoming: Blue October, Fleshtones, Islands, Jackyl, Raekwon, Etc.

​Aerial Second, Floorbound, Lotus Effect, This Year's Tiger: LOUNGE STAGE., Sat., June 5. Fitzgerald's. Amplified Heat, Cornhole Dukes, World's Most Dangerous: Fri., June 11. Rudyard's. Anjelah Nicole Johnson: Fri., Oct. 22. House of Blues. Aziz Ansari: CHANGED Sat., Oct. 16. House of Blues. Blue ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Is A National Treasure

Photos by Mark Britain​ For more pictures from Saturday night, see our slideshow here. Aftermath is still trying to get our heads around what we witnessed at Saturday night's benefit for the International House of Blues Foundation in House of Blues' Bronze Peacock Room. In a way, it was one of tho ... More >>

Which Actors Can Hack It As Musicians?

​Hollywood Shuffle got word Thursday that Blues Brother and Saturday Night Live alumnus Dan Aykroyd will be at the downtown Spec's this afternoon from 3-7 p.m. to sign bottles of his new vodka, Conehead Crystal Head. Aykroyd is in town to act as Grand Marshal for Saturday's Art Car Parade. Sat ... More >>

Houston Heart & Soul Blues Benefit Concert

Distant Early Warning: Colbie Caillat, Cyndi Lauper, Delta Spirit, Jerry Jeff Walker, Knitters, Nas, Supersuckers, Etc.

​America: Fri., June 25. Stafford Centre. American Sharks, Scorpion Child, Betaplayer: Thu., April 22. Boondocks. Cyndi Lauper: Thu., Aug. 12. House of Blues. Colbie Caillat: Fri., Aug. 27. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Delta Spirit, David Vandervelde, The Romany Rye: Wed., July 16. Mango's. "D ... More >>

Aftermath: Black Joe Lewis And Little Joe Washington Steam Up Walter's

Photos by Brittanie Shey​ Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears played Walter's Friday night, fresh off half a dozen gigs at SXSW last month, including a high-profile show with soul father Smokey Robinson. The Houston gig was smoky in its own way, with Lewis and band debuting a few new songs and open ... More >>

Beyonce Baby Rumors Freeze Internet; Allen Oldies Band Wows New York Times; Justin Bieber, Future Bull Rider

​ This ROCK SOLID SOURCE claims Beyoncé is preggo. Uh huh. However, it's being re-reported by publications like the New York Post and The Daily Swarm... so maybe it's legit? Speaking of rock solid sources, the Allen Oldies Band got a nice little write-up in this New York Times SXSW recap: "L ... More >>

Little Joe Washington Still Having Birthdays, Celebrating Them In Public

Jay Lee​Last year around this time, Rocks Off and our buddy Lonesome Onry and Mean both got caught up in multi-day musical benders that left us both dazed and confused (conditions from which some would argue we have never fully recovered). Although our respective paths through those days were very ... More >>

Love and Theft

The decade with no name left behind plenty of memorable music.

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

Aftermath: The Houston Press Music Awards Ceremony

Photos by Chris GrayUmbrella Man​ As Maureen McGovern once sang, there's got to be a morning after. And it's about as pleasant as you imagine it is. It's not even that Rocks Off is hung over (much), it's more that after Thursday night's Houston Press Music Awards ceremony, we literally left it all ... More >>

HPMA: Guess What? More Winners: Sideshow Tramps, Homopolice & A Dream Asleep, DJ Sun

Chris Gray​ Well, Little Joe didn't sit in with the Flamin' Hellcats, but Scarface sure did. Dude's got some serious Chuck Berry mojo going on. Who knew?Best Tribute Band: Beetle. Thanking a multitude of Houston music royalty. Beetle really is a sight to behold, and about a minute fraction of the ... More >>

HPMA: Rocks Off Presents Awards to Whoever's Left

Chris Gray​10:09 p.m.: Like a proud momma when she sees her baby fly for the first time, that's what this is watching both Chris and Craig present awards to Alvin Community College's own Lost Fidelity, we're proud of them as well.10:10 p.m.: Best local song of the year belongs to Mechanical Boy wi ... More >>

Little Joe Washington: Texas Fire Line

Don't Ever Count Britney Out — Just Like These Others.

Back in Black

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 >>

Little Joe Washington's 70th Birthday

This Week in SXSW: Katy Perry Kisses the "Lake of Fire"

There's now less than a month to go until we here at Rocks Off throw sobriety and sane living to the wind at this year's SXSW festival. This past week we learned of a boatload of new stuff about the weeklong liver-damaging voyage in March, so here goes... The list of bands keeps growing and gro ... More >>

Tonight: Earl Gilliam Blues Revue (But No Earl) at the Big Easy

Houston-area bluesman Earl Gilliam, who turned 79 Tuesday, was hospitalized earlier this month for a partially collapsed lung. He's home and recovering now, but still unable to perform. However, his birthday show with the Earl Gilliam Blues Revue, originally scheduled for last Friday, will pro ... More >>

Houston (and Rocks Off) Makes Spin Magazine

Grand Theft Auto X: The Screwston Chronicles

Mp3: Simpleton's "Milo"

18th Houston Press Music Awards Marked by Politeness, Bleeding

Announcing the 2007 Houston Press Music Awards Winners

Boondocks

Little Joe Hits Boondocks

Houston Band Cartography

The launch of our blog brings forth a quixotic attempt toward a local music atlas

Earl Gilliam

Texas Doghouse Blues

Ronald Reagan's Army

In your heart, you know the Yuppie Prick$ are right

Best CD by a Local Musician

Houston Guitar Blues, Little Joe Washington

Little Joe Makes It Big

Joe Washington goes from down and out to up and coming

Letters

Big on Little Joe, A Capital Idea, Truck Lines