Marcia Ball

Ring in the Holidays at Charles Brown Blues Fest

Trombone Shorty and Glen David Andrews at Fado

Texas Johnny Brown to Play Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Lady Belts the Blues

Marcia Ball signs with Alligator and gets a new groove on

Still Howlin'

Omar Dykes keeps finding ways to push the blues out there

Texans Score 30 Grammy Nominations

Allison Krauss, Robert Plant and T-Bone Burnett (far right) Texas artists landed 30 nominations in 20 categories when the contenders for the 51st annual Grammy Awards were announced today, including all five nominees for Best Tejano Album and four of the five Best Norteno Album contenders. All of ... More >>

Takin' the Lead

Quintessential backup man (and Stevie Ray mentor) Doyle Bramhall steps out in front

Goodbye to Lanny Steele

Quintessential backup man (and Stevie Ray mentor) Doyle Bramhall steps out in front

Doug Sahm Tribute Album Due March 24

Vanguard Records (Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters, Kim Richey, the Watson Twins) announced today it will release Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, a 14-song disc honoring the late musican known as Sir Doug, March 24. Artists include Delbert McClinton, Los Lobos, Alejandro Escovedo, Da ... More >>

Press Picks

Vanguard Records (Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters, Kim Richey, the Watson Twins) announced today it will release Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, a 14-song disc honoring the late musican known as Sir Doug, March 24. Artists include Delbert McClinton, Los Lobos, Alejandro Escovedo, Da ... More >>

Static

Vanguard Records (Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters, Kim Richey, the Watson Twins) announced today it will release Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, a 14-song disc honoring the late musican known as Sir Doug, March 24. Artists include Delbert McClinton, Los Lobos, Alejandro Escovedo, Da ... More >>

Press Picks

Vanguard Records (Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters, Kim Richey, the Watson Twins) announced today it will release Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm, a 14-song disc honoring the late musican known as Sir Doug, March 24. Artists include Delbert McClinton, Los Lobos, Alejandro Escovedo, Da ... More >>

iFest Unveils Complete Lineup

Photos courtesy of iFest BeogaSince we're already playing hangman today, here's another riddle: What do America's finest genre-hopping Latino band, Houston's best Guinness-chugging rockers, a daughter of the nation's premiere gospel family, a perennially unsung honky-tonker who sounds like th ... More >>

Rotation

Photos courtesy of iFest BeogaSince we're already playing hangman today, here's another riddle: What do America's finest genre-hopping Latino band, Houston's best Guinness-chugging rockers, a daughter of the nation's premiere gospel family, a perennially unsung honky-tonker who sounds like th ... More >>

Night & Day

October 15 - 21, 1998

Aftermath: Miss Leslie and Heather Myles at Under the Volcano

Photos by Reg BurnsIt's not often the Wednesday-night act at Under the Volcano arrives with special guests in tow, but local songstress/honky-tonk goddess Leslie Sloan presented Californian Heather Myles to the Houston music crowd last night. If you call 25 totally mesmerized honky-tonk fanati ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Navigating the Economic Crisis

Down Payment Blues

Irma Thomas: Simply Grand

Down Payment Blues

Janiva Magness

Down Payment Blues

Juneteenth Revisited

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Marcia Ball: Peace, Love & BBQ

Two arts organizations attempt a new spin on an old event

Irie iFest

Finding the coolest runnings at this year's Jamaica-themed Houston International Festival

Just Say Yes

People in the upper tax brackets can afford to ignore social mores

The Main Event

January 29 - February 1

Robert Earl Smith

Rearview Mirror (Muleshoe)

Emo-tional Music

Montrose music gets pushed out towards the Heights

Toni Price

Midnight Pumpkin (Antone's)

Jailhouse Rock

Clifford Antone looks to diva Barbara Lynn and others to help him regain some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Amplified

Out In Sight

Lost Legends

Tary Owens helped rescue the early roots of Texas music. Then those songs saved Owens from himself.

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: "New Texas"

In the third in our continuing series on the music of the five states of Texas, we examine the fictional state of New Texas, comprising Austin and the Hill Country. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here. New Texas Capital: Austin Patron Saint: Willie Nelson ​Lesser Icons: Roky Erickson/Thirteenth Floor ... More >>

Ghosts of Washington Avenue

Noise goes whistling through the scenester artery's music venue graveyard.

Miss Rockefeller's? Marcia Ball and Texas Johnny Brown Headline iFest Benefit February 12

brides.com​Like many of you - we're guessing, anyway - Rocks Off never saw a show at Rockefeller's. We didn't get inside the Loop much during high school (too busy checking groceries) and, although we managed to go to Mary Jane's, the Satellite Lounge and maybe the Abyss (it's a little fuzzy) on v ... More >>

Nothing's Wrong

Scott H. Biram cuts back on the craziness...just not in his music.

Great Moments With Mr. Rockefeller: Billy Harper, Garth Brooks and Sonny Rollins

[Ed. Note: To help spread the word about next Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs at Rockefeller Hall, featuring Texas Johnny Brown and Marcia Ball, Rocks Off asked iFest director of performing arts and former Houston Chronicle music critic Rick Mitchell to r ... More >>

Great Moments With Mr. Rockefeller: Ray Price, Bobby "Blue" Bland and the Kansas City All-Stars

[Ed. Note: To help spread the word about next Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs at Rockefeller Hall, featuring Texas Johnny Brown and Marcia Ball, Rocks Off asked iFest director of performing arts and former Houston Chronicle music critic Rick Mitchell to r ... More >>

Marcia Ball, Texas Johnny Brown

[Ed. Note: To help spread the word about next Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs at Rockefeller Hall, featuring Texas Johnny Brown and Marcia Ball, Rocks Off asked iFest director of performing arts and former Houston Chronicle music critic Rick Mitchell to r ... More >>

Aftermath: Texas Johnny Brown, Marcia Ball And An iFest Preview

Photos by Jody PerryTexas Johnny Brown​ After Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs, Aftermath can understand why, in all the recent reminiscing about Rockefeller's we've been doing on Rocks Off, no one has ever had a bad word to say about the place. Never ha ... More >>

Houston International Festival

Photos by Jody PerryTexas Johnny Brown​ After Friday's benefit for the Houston International Festival's education programs, Aftermath can understand why, in all the recent reminiscing about Rockefeller's we've been doing on Rocks Off, no one has ever had a bad word to say about the place. Never ha ... More >>

iFest Aftermath: Joe Ely Band Almost Pulls A Michael Jackson

Photos by Jason WolterMarcia Ball (left) and Joe Ely get their "Fingernails" dirty.​ Terry Allen once told Aftermath that Joe Ely was his favorite performer. Allen related that Ely would come over to his house in Lubbock and sit on his couch and try out new songs. According to Allen, it didn't mat ... More >>

Joe Ely's Top Five Live Shots, By iFest's Rick Mitchell

Jason WolterJoe Ely (left) and David Grissom at iFest 2010​Next Friday, Feb. 11, the Joe Ely Band returns to Rockefeller Hall for the first time in more than a decade, since the legendary Washington Avenue showcase club stopped presenting live music to focus on the less risky business of priva ... More >>

Friday Night: Joe Ely Band At Rockefeller Hall

Photos by Jason Wolter​Joe Ely Band Rockefeller Hall February 11, 2011 Saturday night, almost exactly 24 hours after the Joe Ely Band's triumphant return to Rockefeller's Rockefeller Hall, Aftermath and a friend were chatting on Facebook about Houston's current bumper crop of up-and-coming in ... More >>

RIP Joe Gracey, Austin Media Giant

​Another Austin music legend, Joe Gracey, passed away this morning of cancer complications. He was 61. When Lonesome, Onry and Mean arrived in Austin in June, 1973 after having worked in radio in West Texas, Gracey immediately became our hero. A disc jockey at the notorious KOKE-FM, Gracey an ... More >>