Johnny Paycheck

Saturday Night: Brantley Gilbert at Reliant Stadium

Brantley Gilbert Reliant Stadium March 2, 2013 The specter of Honey Boo Boo hovered over Brantley Gilbert Saturday at RodeoHouston. If one single human being apart from the not-so-pint-sized TLC reality star who embodies the word "redneckognize," it's the man responsible for the song "Kick It In th ... More >>

Saturday Night: Buxton at the Continental Club

Buxton Continental Club February 23, 2013 Buxton's songs project an odd kind of innocence for a band that has been getting pretty seasoned the past couple of years. It's been five since they appeared out of the La Porte/Deer Park area with A Family Light, a mini-album that distinguished itself from ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Brian Davis, Punk Drummer, Horror Composer

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? You probably know Brian Davis as the d ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Miss Leslie, Queen of the Honky-Tonks

Who? Miss Leslie if you're country, Leslie Anne Sloane has played fiddle/violin in both the classical and country/bluegrass styles since age 5. In 2004, she started Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers, which can usually be found once or twice a month at finer roadhouses and honky-tonks in the greater ... More >>

5 Great Songs by Psy Besides “Gangnam Style”

Who Should Play RodeoHouston In 2013?

On October 30, just a few days from now, RodeoHouston will announce its first round of performers for the 2013 edition of the star-studded, yeehawin', nearly three-week event at Reliant Park. The booking the last few years has been getting more adventurous, with the likes of Kid Rock, KISS, Mary J. ... More >>

Friday Night: Eric Church at Toyota Center

Eric Church Toyota Center September 24, 2012 Eric Church is the most curious country artist to come along in a while. He says he sips Jack Daniel's in concert and (despite my assumption) talks it up in his shows without taking a dime from the Tennessee distiller, which is a sight different from Tob ... More >>

Which Fake Randy Travis Should You Follow?

The passion of Randy Travis has been one of the saddest and most compelling musical dramas of the past year. One of Nashville's most beloved and seemingly mild-mannered singers (now a North Texan) has suddenly gone full-on Johnny Paycheck, brawling in church parking lots, popping out to buy smokes w ... More >>

The Rose of Houston

Investigating old country music and beef jerky at Rose Garden, one of our city's most cherished hideaways.

Last Night: ZZ Top At Reliant Stadium

ZZ Top RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 8, 2012 See more photos from Thursday, even some without beards, in our slideshow. I admit, I had almost given up on waiting for ZZ Top to show me something new. Not even something from their new album - which is finally completed but caught up in the mus ... More >>

Randy Travis' Arrest: Five Other Country-Music Arrests That Sound Like Country Songs

Randy Travis: Life is like a country song​Randy Travis' arrest sounded like nothing more than the opening verse to a country song. The singer is drunk, late at night outside a Baptist church, drinking wine out of the bottle. If that doesn't set you up for a redemptive last verse after you've ... More >>

Connie Smith: Classic Country Queen Returns With New Heartaches

Photos by Russ Harrington/Sugar Hill Records​People often get a bit confrontational with Lonesome Onry and Mean about "country music," like the last time we went to the bank in our father's little ranching town in Central Texas. As soon as we were introduced as a "music writer," one fellow - t ... More >>

Top 10 Texas Movie Soundtracks

​This weekend, as the rest of the world catches Harry Potter mania for (perhaps) the final time, Houston gets a serious dose of Urban Cowboy nostalgia. Theater Under the Stars' production of the Tony-nominated 2003 musical - which The New York Times called "a conclusive demonstration that it's ... More >>

Last Night: Robert Ellis & The Boys At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Robert Ellis & the Boys (CD release), Jonny Corndawg Fitzgerald's July 6, 2011 See more Photographs from Ellis' homecoming in our slideshow. Robert Ellis' record release show last night wasn't short on thrills, from the openers to the closing moments from Ellis and his ... More >>

Saturday Night: Josh Groban At Toyota Center

Photos by Jay Lee​Josh Groban Toyota Center May 14, 2011 Josh Groban is an unusual pop star. Unusual for 2011, anyway. One hundred years ago, many "pop stars" as we think of the term today drew their repertoires from light opera and Italian bel canto. The vocal techniques and subject matter ... More >>

Last Night: Jamey Johnson At Warehouse Live

dirtymitten.comJamey Johnson also doesn't approve photo requests, but he still looks like this.​Jamey Johnson Warehouse Live May 11, 2011 Ladies and gentlemen, the feel-good show of the year. Aftermath had never seen Jamey Johnson live before Wednesday, so we don't know if what happened is h ... More >>

Last Shot Of Whiskey Wednesday Is Powerful Stuff

Steve Jansen​Rocks Off doesn't know where you went to school, but Robert Ellis & the Boys' final Whiskey Wednesday at Fitzgerald's last night felt a lot like the prom/graduation party we always wanted to have. With maybe just a little more beer. 'Tis the season. As the ceiling sagged from th ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Colorado Kool-Aid

Lonesome, Onry and Mean had just begun our phone interview with Monte Warden of the Wagoneers when we heard someone talking to Warden in the background. Warden then asked, "Are you that guy who wrote the blog about 'Colorado Kool-Aid'?" We had to admit that we were. "This is unbelievable," War ... More >>

The Best Bar-Fight Song Of All Time: "Colorado Kool-Aid"

​"I's sittin' in this beer joint down in Houston, Texas/ Drinkin' Colorado Kool-Aid and talkin' to some Mexicans..." So begins one of the greatest bar fight songs of all time. Along with "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone To Kill)," "Colorado Kool-Aid" is one of the high-water marks of Johnny P ... More >>

In The Jailhouse Now: Tom DeLay's Prison Soundtrack

​Tom DeLay is, in Lonesome, Onry and Mean's opinion, one of the lowest, vilest, most divisive, scum-sucking snake oil salesmen ever to enter politics. Now DeLay is heading to the pokey to serve time for his money laundering activities (pending his appeal, of course). We don't recall another H ... More >>

The Ten Bleakest Songs In Country Music History

decodedstuff.com​Country music isn't all high-tech rednecks and honky tonk badonkadonks. Country artists have a tendency to, every now and then, sing about some dark, disturbing stuff. Sometimes scary, sometimes violent, and sometimes just weird, here are some country songs that rival the blac ... More >>

Steve Slater: Five Other Ways Flight Attendant Could Have Handled The Situation

Steve Slater: Johnny Paycheck approves​You've heard the fabulous tale of Steve Slater, a flight attendant on JetBlue. As the plane he was working pulled up to the gate, some asshole jumped out of his seat to get his luggage.Because that person was so, so much more important than anyone else.Slater ... More >>

Died and Gone to Houston

City is ready for another honky-tonk close-up.

Ray Price

Busted! 20 Musician Mugshots

​ Getting arrested and booked isn't the end of the world, by any means. Well unless you just killed a shit-ton of people at a bowling alley or something, it really is. But if you are a rocker or a celebrity who committed a minor offense, it's just a funny footnote in your public life you can look ... More >>

My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers: 18 Readings From The Book Of Hag

​ When Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson take the Verizon stage for tonight's "Who's More Grizzled?" grudge match, they'll bring with them a century of experience as two of the most iconoclastic, poetic voices in popular song, country or any other genre. No disrespect to Kristofferson (four wor ... More >>

Misery and Gin

Country music, faded stardom, liquor, and age in Crazy Heart.

Honky-Tonk Revival

Is Houston ready for country? Again?

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Please Rise for the Texas National Anthem You May Not Have Even Known About

LOM's dad loves to tell a story about being at the Petroleum Club in London in 1978 when Darrell McCall's "Lily Dale" came on the sound system. Some wiry little guy stood up on a chair and hollered, "Shut up, you Limey sons of bitches, they're playing the Texas National Anthem." "I thought surely s ... More >>

Listology: Honky-Tonk Man Mike Stinson Chooses His Favorite Drinking Songs

Markus Cuff​Honky-tonk man and recent Houston transplant Mike Stinson knows a thing or two about a bottle. Lonesome Onry and Mean asked him to list his all-time favorite drinking songs, many of which you will no doubt hear this evening at Under the Volcano. "So many classic drinking songs, I could ... More >>

Sorry Dave, We Had To: Top Ten Songs to Listen to While Having Sex With Co-Workers

If The Late Show with David Letterman hasn't seemed very funny lately, it's probably because Dave has been spending more time apologizing for banging his subordinates than he has making fun of Paul Shaffer. Admittedly, it was a bold move: coming forward and confessing his past missteps in order to ... More >>

"It's Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long" and Other Funny Country Titles We Found

​Rocks Off has been a fan of Robert Earl Keen since we heard 1994's Gringo Honeymoon, and we've really been a fan since we heard his previous album, A Bigger Piece of Sky, shortly thereafter. We got Keen's latest album, The Rose Hotel (Lost Highway), in the mail this week, and after a few listens, ... More >>

Upstairs, Downstairs: The Most Unoriginal SIN

Every so often, when Rocks Off is lucky enough to spend an evening at home, he'll dig up a pen and paper and start scratching away. So it was Monday night...Joshua Black WilkinsHere Comes Trouble: Th' Legendary Shack Shakers​The longer you're in this business, the more you learn to appreciate the ... More >>

Sole of Houston: Airport Drive, The Finale (Including Unwanted Puke)

And here is the final installment of David Beebe and John Lomax's 20-plus mile hike from Intercontinental Airport to Spanish Flowers restaurant. Part one is here and part two is here.David Beebe's accounts of the same hike are here and here.Airline's furthest reaches are lined by sprawling and run-d ... More >>

A Review of Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings

Weekend Music: Jucifer Doubles Your Pleasure

Don't Take Your Guns to Town

Country Music Pistol Packers Hall of Fame

Career Cred

Houston's 2006 Whitney Biennial participants, one year later

David Allan Coe

Thursday, August 24, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

Play "Free Bird"!

Using the Bob-O-Meter to rate cover songs

Playbill

The Meat Purveyors

Pain By Numbers (Bloodshot)

Playbill

Down-Home Brew

Learning to speak wino, and other lessons from the road, with Eleven Hundred Springs

The Reddest Neck in Town

David Allan Coe is the most politically incorrect man in mainstream music

Jug Ugly

Aaron Loesch and band find inspiration in life's throwaway objects

Rotation

Tracy Byrd, Jim Hall and Pat Metheny

The One and Only

A fiddler gets a leg up on the competition

Swing Kings

Take This Band and Love It