Lucinda Williams

Catfish Reef: Happy Woman Blues

Last Night: Randy Weeks at the Mucky Duck

Drenched In Blog: Goin’ Out West for ACL Fest

Hey, Look Over There

No Mas No Depression: The Alt-Country (or Whatever That Is) Journal Shuts Down

ACL Fest: Drive-By Truckers, Man Man, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, and MGMT

Caroline Herring

Friday, March 8

The Worst Lyrics of 2008: NCAA-Style Showdown

And now it's time for the "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" memorial Worst Lyrics of 2008, March Madness-style tournament, this year a terrifying mélange of appalling oral-sex requests, bargain-bin philosophies, grammatical atrocities, and cringe-inducing pillow talk. To elevate the drama, I p ... More >>

Chart Check: Texans on Amazon.com

[Rocks Off scrolled through the various Top Sellers lists on Amazon.com this afternoon to see which albums by Texas artists are moving, and where.] Top Sellers Overall 2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo 7. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel ... More >>

Rotation

[Rocks Off scrolled through the various Top Sellers lists on Amazon.com this afternoon to see which albums by Texas artists are moving, and where.] Top Sellers Overall 2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo 7. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel ... More >>

Breaking Through to the Mainstream

[Rocks Off scrolled through the various Top Sellers lists on Amazon.com this afternoon to see which albums by Texas artists are moving, and where.] Top Sellers Overall 2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo 7. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel ... More >>

Texas Music 1998: The Year That Wasn't

[Rocks Off scrolled through the various Top Sellers lists on Amazon.com this afternoon to see which albums by Texas artists are moving, and where.] Top Sellers Overall 2. Steve Martin, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo 7. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel ... More >>

Living Doll

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Morrissey: Years of Refusal

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Could Alternative Country Work at the Rodeo?

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Lucinda Williams, with Buick 6

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

2008 in Texas Albums and Local EPs

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Texas Music on Sirius/XM's Outlaw Country

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Lucinda Williams: Little Honey

Mary Chapin Carpenter's new tour will rekindle old flames

Mick Jagger meets Gilley's

Some Girls Ride Bulls

Lucinda Williams

World Without Tears (Lost Highway)

Dana Cooper

Made of Mud

Tony Joe White

Friday, September 30, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Mary Gauthier

Mercy Now

Tony Furtado, with Sky Blue 72 and Fahl and Folk

Free show: Saturday, April 9, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

Playbill

Free show: Saturday, April 9, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

Playbill

Free show: Saturday, April 9, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717

The Bottle Rockets and Lucinda Williams

Saturday, February 28

Festivus Maximus

The Austin City Limits Music Festival's got a roster that won't quit

Dark Riders

The good, the bad and the ugly rock-star performance contracts

Hissin' Dixie.

Country stars battle it out on the eve of war

Change of Beat

Just like the rest of Houston, the local music scene saw plenty of ups and downs

Trish Murphy

Captured (Raven)

The Naked Truth

Lucinda lays bare her Essence

Lucinda Williams

Essence (Lost Highway)

Letters

Rockin' On, A Stark Affair, Wrong War?

Desert Rose

Victoria Williams, a native of swampy Louisiana, finds her muse in the dry beauty of Southern California

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 >>

Road Trippin': A West Texas/Big Bend Playlist

​ Right after Christmas, Rocks Off hopped into our car and headed straight for the bowels of West Texas. It's a long drive to Big Bend, mostly through the middle of nowhere, huge swaths of land where even AM radio can't reach. Twelve hours in the car demands a certain kind of playlist that, like a ... More >>

Anderson Fair Documentary Premieres At SXSW; Hits Houston Worldfest April 10

​ One of the cinematic highlights of SXSW was yesterday's world premiere of For The Sake of The Song: The Story of Anderson Fair. Produced by Houstonians Bruce Bryant and Jim Barham, the film documents the forty year history of one of the most storied Texas music venues. The old spaghetti rest ... More >>

Rocks Off Is Bleeding, Torn And Frayed

​Exile on Main Street is not Rocks Off's favorite Rolling Stones album. Never has been. That honor rests with Let It Bleed, and not for "Gimme Shelter" (OK, that's a lie), "Midnight Rambler" or "You Can't Always Get What You Want." No, for us it's always been the songs sandwiched around "Rambler": ... More >>

Aussie Anne McCue Seeking Trumpet, Sax For Volcano Gig

myspace.com/annemccue​Aussie guitarslinger Anne McCue, now a resident of Nashville, has hung around the edges of the U.S. alt-country and blues-rock scenes for years now. However, her third American release, Broken Promise Land, may finally put the slinky blonde firmly on the map. Beginning with t ... More >>

Roger Wood and Andy Bradley, Wendy Hundere Parnell

myspace.com/annemccue​Aussie guitarslinger Anne McCue, now a resident of Nashville, has hung around the edges of the U.S. alt-country and blues-rock scenes for years now. However, her third American release, Broken Promise Land, may finally put the slinky blonde firmly on the map. Beginning with t ... More >>

Carrie Rodriguez

myspace.com/annemccue​Aussie guitarslinger Anne McCue, now a resident of Nashville, has hung around the edges of the U.S. alt-country and blues-rock scenes for years now. However, her third American release, Broken Promise Land, may finally put the slinky blonde firmly on the map. Beginning with t ... More >>

Who Was The Best Female Artist Of The '90s?

The album that started the whole thing.​Rocks Off Sr. was straightening up our office a few days ago, something that happens like clockwork every time Middle Eastern governments start toppling like dominos. In one of the piles and piles of al fresco CDs, we ran across two of our favorite album ... More >>

The United States Of Women In Music

​Rocks Off is no He-Man Woman Hater's Club. We like women quite a bit, actually, especially those women brave enough to wade through the rivers of bullshit in the male-dominated music business. If you'll page back a few weeks, you'll remember the discussion of our favorite female artists from ... More >>

Odd Pairs: Ten Upcoming Nights of Music Bring Wild Variations

Photo by groovehouseTry to guess who's playing the same night as Toadies.​Diversity is a big deal in H-Town. In fact, our cultural diversity creates such a wide variety of musical styles, it is hard to figure out just what kind of music town we are. In places like Memphis, Nashville, Seattle a ... More >>

Blessed

Anderson Fair alumna Lucinda Williams returns to Houston.

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 >>

Vintage Pics Of Destiny's Child, ZZ Top, Blue October & More

Photo by Steve Harris/Compadre RecordsHayes Carll before he was old enough to shave... not that he ever has.​The other day, one of the Rocks Off Crew was rummaging around in the Houston Press office and came across a bunch of publicity stills for various musicians. Allow us to explain what th ... More >>