Subject: Loretta Lynn

• Bet You Didn't Know They Have Toilets on Those Things

  February 6, 2007

• Catfish Reef: Happy Woman Blues

  February 20, 2007

• Sunny Day

  October 19, 2006

• Give Us a Hand

  October 9, 2007

• Four Lost Neil Diamond Covers

  October 14, 2008

• Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

  Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic Furr smells more like the Kinks than Neil Young. [Editor's note: That's why we put it on our indie-rock list.] We likewise discarded Shearwater's near-masterpiece Rook, despite the fact that the album

  December 22, 2008

• 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-down '70s apartment complexes. And yet there's a weirdly rural feel in patches. The 281 area code hangs on for a longer time than you would expect, and there are plenty of fireworks stands, as a swath

  January 15, 2009

• Critic's Choice

  December 7, 1995

• Rotation

  August 14, 1997

• Tupelo's Curse

  January 15, 1998

• Aftermath: Loretta Lynn at Arena Theatre

  Photos by Craig HlavatyLoretta Lynn came to the stage Saturday night swathed in a baby-blue evening gown the likes of which haven't been seen in country music since before Taylor Swift was even in a twinkle in her father's eye. At age 74, the "Blue Kentucky Girl" still packs a room, and her following is still as fervent as it was decades ago. The Arena Theatre off the Southwest Freeway was completely packed with gray-haired grannies, tattooed gals in Misfits tees, well-coiffed g

  February 23, 2009

• Rotation

  April 2, 1998

• Rotation

  September 3, 1998

• Rotation

  November 26, 1998

• Rotation

  December 17, 1998

• Aftermath: Reba McEntire at RodeoHouston

  Photos by Mark C. AustinReba McEntire is the closest modern country will ever get to the artistic heights of its pioneering female vocalists. Sure Tanya Tucker had her run but the booze, powders and Glen Campbell took their toll. Shania Twain was just a Nashville/Pat Benatar Frankenstein project. And all the others were B-teamers shoving out their shingle on Music Row in hopes of at least landing a spot a county fair or a gig shilling corn chips. When it comes to heavy-hitting mamas like

  March 12, 2009

• Tonight: Carrie Rodriguez and Jubal Lee Young at Conroe's Free First Thursday

  Carrie Rodriguez kicks of Conroe's free First Thursdays concert series tonight. After a long tenure as a duet with hall-of-fame-quality songwriter Chip Taylor, Rodriguez struck out on her own last year with She Ain't Me. The album is very much in a Patty Griffin vein, but the title track would do Loretta Lynn proud back in her "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" days - Rodriguez warns her man, ""Whoever Ms. Whoever is, she ain't me." Opening with new material from his soon-to-drop Last

  April 2, 2009

• Another Rock Mag Bites The Dust: Performing Songwriter Says Goodbye

  Print publications focusing on music continue to fall like pine trees in a hurricane. The latest to close its doors is 16-year-old Performing Songwriter. Editor/publisher Lydia Hutchison announced Wednesday that the June issue would be the last. The magazine joins No Depression, Blender and Country Standard Time, all of which ceased print operations in the face of a bad economy, shrinking record industry, and heated competition for a dwindling advertising base. Decatur, Georgia-based Paste ma

  June 5, 2009

• Loretta Lynn

  February 19, 2009

• Texas Music on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country

  December 4, 2008

• Mick Jagger meets Gilley's

  Some Girls Ride Bulls

  October 23, 2008

• Miss Leslie: Between the Whiskey and the Wine

  July 3, 2008

• Jennifer "Miss Pop Rocks" Mathieu's Matagorda Island Discs

  May 22, 2008

• Kentucky Club

  Kentucky Cocktail

  October 18, 2007

• Jimmie's Place

  Willie Nelson stories and shoeshines at Jimmie's

  September 27, 2007

• Lucinda Williams

  West Lost Highway

  February 15, 2007

• True Aim, Blue Flame

  How Elvis Costello turned his eclectic nature into career gold

  April 13, 2006

• Told You So

  Racket gets his gloat on

  February 16, 2006

• Neil Diamond; Bobby Bare

  12 Songs; The Moon Was Blue

  November 17, 2005

• Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers

  Honky Tonk Revival

  October 20, 2005

• 2006 Houston Press Music Awards Supplement

  July 27, 2006

• Coal Miner Mother of a Mess

  In which we call bullshit on J.T. LeRoy's "essay" in the Oxford American's music issue

  August 25, 2005

• The Voodoo Chile's Slight Return

  Greg Ashley resurrects the Mirrors for a summer tour; also: beware of Zipperneck

  August 4, 2005

• Christmas in July

  Six dozen of Houston's finest bands for a mere $7

  July 21, 2005

• She's Gone (Away from) Country

  But Tift Merritt's latest release, Tambourine, is up for Best Country Album

  January 13, 2005

• Americana Pie

  Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

  December 23, 2004

• Americana Pie

  Grab a slice of 2004's best roots music while it's still hot

  December 23, 2004

• Rockin' in the Free World

  Soundtracks for your Election Night shindigs

  October 28, 2004

• Classics Rock

  Which Greek god is your favorite musician?

  September 2, 2004

• Loretta Lynn

  Van Lear Rose (Interscope)

  May 6, 2004

• Loretta Lynn

  Sunday, February 22

  February 19, 2004

• If That Ain't Country

  Stampeding horses and twangy riffs at the HMNS

  January 1, 2004

• Karen Poston

  Wednesday, November 21

  November 15, 2001

• Chalee Tennison

  This Woman's Heart (Asylum)

  April 5, 2001

• Hear Them Tweet

  The Dixie Chicks get spunky

  August 10, 2000

• Gracious Angel

  A box set doesn't mean Emmylou Harris's career is done; it may mean it's just beginning

  January 2, 1997

• Levon Helm Is 69... and Badass

  Rocks Off is having a little trouble looking his "2009 Year of the Rhino" wall calendar in the eye this morning. He trusted it implicitly until Tuesday, when a friend pointed out that in saluting Stevie Nicks, Miles Davis and Hank Williams Jr. on their birthday, he left out former Band drummer Levon Helm, who turned 69. Considering how much Band Rocks Off has listened to since Helm turned 68, and how many times he's watched The Last Waltz, this is just this side of unforgivable. So, naturally,

  May 27, 2009

• Lone Star Scorecard: All Tanya Tucker Edition

  ​The history of country music - or any music until recent years, for that matter - is largely represented by men, with female artists popping up more and more frequently as time passed and concert/record promoters realized there was a market for women in the business. In country, you started with pioneers like Kitty Wells, who were followed by the next wave (Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee) and then the Big Three (Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette) before female artists became relatively commo

  September 9, 2009

• ACL 2009 Day Three: Aftermath

  Photos by Mark C. AustinDavid Garza​So, what happens to freshly laid grass in a public park after a day full of rain and thousands of people walking back and forth across it at the same time? Well, as anyone who was present for Day Three of Austin City Limits Festival 2009 (ACL) could tell you, it turns into a big muddy, stinking, sloppy mess, one with the power to swallow shoes and small children whole. The stories from this day will mostly revolve around how people were able to survive

  October 5, 2009

• Five Musicians Who'd Make Better Vampires than Those Sparkly Twilight Douchebags

  ​New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight series, hits theaters this week, and even though the trailers alone have us ready to put it on our "Worst of 2009" lists ("Jake! NOOOO!"), there's no denying the movie is going to make more money than an underaged prostitute at a Promise Keepers convention. Midnight screenings are already sold out, and the legions of teens that flocked to the first film are now being joined by their mothers in an uncomfortable display of multi-generational lust we ha

  November 18, 2009