Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn

Together Always: Country Duets for Valentine's Day

Maybe it's because I'm a Libra, but I believe that everything in life should be as harmonious as possible-love, especially. Duets might be the ultimate musical testament to such a theory. I'm not talking about the resonance that's created when a woman is vacuuming while her man watches television. I ... More >>

With a Rebel Yell: 10 Rockers Gone Country

Photo by Matthew KeeverAaron Lewis at the Verizon Wireless Theater in 2010.​When Staind singer Aaron Lewis rolls into Verizon Wireless Theater tomorrow night, odds are he'll leave his mudshuvel back at the hotel. As modern rock radio turns to the next generation of angst, the former Fred Durs ... More >>

Crystal Gayle

Photo by Matthew KeeverAaron Lewis at the Verizon Wireless Theater in 2010.​When Staind singer Aaron Lewis rolls into Verizon Wireless Theater tomorrow night, odds are he'll leave his mudshuvel back at the hotel. As modern rock radio turns to the next generation of angst, the former Fred Durs ... More >>

Last Night: Zac Brown Band at the Woodlands

Photos by Marco Torres​Aftermath has heard a decent amount of entertaining segues at concerts. Most concert segues are awkward and some are funny, but this one from Zac Brown's last night was the most country shit we've ever heard: "Sometimes you have to fight the chicken when you're a man." ... More >>

2 Become 1: Musical Match-Ups We'd Like To See

​Kanye "Hitler" West and Jay-Z released their (overused music writer word alert) epic Watch the Throne album this week, to mostly great reviews. This fall the first fruits from the recently announced Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration should be on the store shelves, which still sorta weirds us o ... More >>

Lyrical Life Lessons: Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

straightpinkie.com​Blame it on the humidity, but there's something about Houston that makes women go off the deep end. In fact, the Bayou City is home to three of the past decade's most notorious female-perpetrated crimes. There was Dr. Clara Harris (2002), who responded to the news of her hu ... More >>

Wanda Jackson Loves Jesus, Jack White & Adele

​Rocks Off conducted an unusual interview this week. We say "interview," when perhaps a better word is "exchange." Recently we have been tinkering with the composition of our interviews, in the hopes of avoiding boilerplate questions like "Who are your influences?" in favor of something, we h ... More >>

Rocks Off's Fantasy RodeoHouston Lineup

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show & RodeoGeorge Strait in 1996​If you walk through Reliant Center, hanging from the ceiling are banners listing almost every musical performer RodeoHouston has hosted since the '60s. The names reflect the hallowed history of country and fleeting fancies ... More >>

Who's Too Old To Rock & Roll?

​It's entirely possible that the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney will each go on tour this year. With ages ranging from 63 to 69 among the four remaining core Stones, the band is obviously the oldest continuing touring rock act, capable of breaking ticket records almost 50 years into the gam ... More >>

Midnight Flyer

Amber Digby, honky-tonk traditionalist, is a busy woman.

Taylor Swift's Ten Best Disses On Speak Now

​Taylor Swift has just released her third, and angriest, album, Speak Now. It's an alternately aggressive and poppy turn for the country girl, who is quickly shedding any previous genre trappings and very much becoming one of the pop industry's biggest stars. She combines female conviction wit ... More >>

Wanda Jackson

​Taylor Swift has just released her third, and angriest, album, Speak Now. It's an alternately aggressive and poppy turn for the country girl, who is quickly shedding any previous genre trappings and very much becoming one of the pop industry's biggest stars. She combines female conviction wit ... More >>

Margaret Cho Sings: "I'm Sorry I Shot You In The Face"

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​Rocks Off is a pretty big Maragaret Cho fan. She's loud, she's funny and she's pretty goddamn cool. Late ... More >>

Taylor Swift, Slapping Away Romantic Defeat At Toyota Center

[Ed. Note: We sent two reviewers to Taylor Swift Tuesday and flipped a coin to determine which to publish first. The next one will be up at 10:30 a.m. Boys.] Photos by Marco Torres​ It's not easy being a teen girl... Aftermath presumes. You are engaged in what feels like romantic combat with male ... More >>

Smoke Drugs Or Snuggle? Roger Waters And Lilith Fair Coming To Town Soon

Craig Hlavaty​This morning two big Houston concert announcements came down the wire, sure to delight the senses. One will no doubt get you brownie points from your girlfriend if you go, and the other will probably score you some really wicked brownies from a dude that knows a friend of yours. Pink ... More >>

He Said She Said: "Dear Penis" And Other Country Comedy Classics

​ Aside from all the epic cheating, drinking and fighting songs country music has given us, one of the best things it does is make us laugh. Apart from all the crying and cussing, there is a whole deal of laughing going on. This year at RodeoHouston, there aren't many performers on the humorous si ... More >>

2009 Concert Rewind, February: Killers Kill, Annuals Amuse, Hammered at Hank III, Spewing Slipknot and More

Mark C. Austin​ The Killers, Verizon Wireless Theater, February 2: "The general knock on the Killers is that they've achieved their relatively lofty position by standing on the shoulders of giants, which may well be true. But Monday night they showed that in reaching for the stars, they have yet t ... More >>

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 conventi ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 Count ... More >>

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 d ... More >>

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 proje ... More >>

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, ... More >>

Loretta Lynn

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, ... More >>

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 ... More >>

Mick Jagger meets Gilley's

Some Girls Ride Bulls

Miss Leslie: Between the Whiskey and the Wine

Some Girls Ride Bulls

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

Some Girls Ride Bulls

Kentucky Club

Kentucky Cocktail

Give Us a Hand

Kentucky Cocktail

Jimmie's Place

Willie Nelson stories and shoeshines at Jimmie's

Catfish Reef: Happy Woman Blues

Willie Nelson stories and shoeshines at Jimmie's

Lucinda Williams

West Lost Highway

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

West Lost Highway

Sunny Day

West Lost Highway

Neil Diamond; Bobby Bare

12 Songs; The Moon Was Blue

Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers

Honky Tonk Revival

Coal Miner Mother of a Mess

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

She's Gone (Away from) Country

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

Americana Pie

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

Americana Pie

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

Rockin' in the Free World

Soundtracks for your Election Night shindigs

Loretta Lynn

Van Lear Rose (Interscope)

Loretta Lynn

Sunday, February 22

If That Ain't Country

Stampeding horses and twangy riffs at the HMNS

Karen Poston

Wednesday, November 21

Chalee Tennison

This Woman's Heart (Asylum)

Hear Them Tweet

The Dixie Chicks get spunky

Rotation

The Dixie Chicks get spunky