Martina McBride

Randy Rogers Band Springs Surprise Trouble Release Show at Firehouse Saloon Tonight

The Randy Rogers Band has become a big enough name on the highly competitive Texas country/Red Dirt circuit that the quintet was chosen to open for George Strait and Martina McBride on Strait's Houston stop of his "The Cowboy Rides Away" tour at Reliant Stadium back in March. Reached by phone from " ... More >>

Upcoming: Barry Manilow, Titus Andronicus, Sheryl Crow, Jonas Brothers, Mudhoney, etc.

Angry Samoans: With Swingin' Dicks, Die Rottz., Fri., April 12, 10 p.m., $12. Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh, Houston. Bang Bangz: Sat., April 13, 1 p.m., Free. Cactus Music & Video, 2110 Portsmouth St., Houston. Barry Manilow: Sun., May 19, 8 p.m., $29.99-$139.99. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lak ... More >>

Goodbye, George?

Strait's "The Cowboy Rides Away" tour closes out this year's rodeo.

Last Night: George Strait at Reliant Stadium

George Strait Reliant Stadium March 17, 2013 Sunday night, George Strait wrangled 80,020 fans into Reliant Stadium for what is surely to be just one of his first "farewell" shows here in Houston. This glut of country fans -- only few thousand short of the total population of Santa Monica, Californi ... More >>

Rodeo Houston Fun

Go Texan with this guide.

A Full Dance Card

The 2013 RodeoHouston lineup reflects Houston, not Texas.

Fair Play

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo wii do whatever it takes to keep its revolving stage from going dark.

Rodeo Touches Every Corner of Pop Universe, Almost Misses Texas

I live too far away from the coasts to care about Coachella all that much, and have done far too much time in both the ACL and SXSW trenches to get too excited about anything that happens in far west Houston anymore. So instead, I have started looking forward to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's ... More >>

Toby Keith, Demi Lovato, Luke Bryan Kick Off RodeoHouston 2013

Moments ago, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo announced its first four non-George Strait entertainers for the 2013 season: Toby Keith (February 25), teen stars Demi Lovato and Austin Mahone (March 3), Jason Aldean (March 11) and Luke Bryan (March 16). As usual, the rodeo is offering two pocket-si ... More >>

Notes on Nashville: The Finer Points of Sex and "Songwriting"

There's a saying in the music business that you have your whole life to make your first album, and a few months to make your next one. The second episode of a new TV show isn't quite the same thing (production schedule, for one), but it is just as useful for potential fans to decide whether or not t ... More >>

Bon Iver, Hipster Doofus

The Cowboy Prepares to Ride Away: George Strait Announces His Touring Retirement

Today country legend George Strait -- King George around these parts -- announced during a live YouTube broadcast from Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame that he is hanging up his touring boots and saddle after decades on the road. Strait is still slated to close out RodeoHouston's 2013 seaso ... More >>

You Better Run: 10 Other Great Pat Benatar Songs

Pat Benatar is one of the greatest vocalists of all-time, the woman behind numerous memorable hits such as "Heartbreaker," "You Better Run" and the ever-popular "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." However, she has had many other great songs throughout her career, from albums such as In the Heat of the Nig ... More >>

A July 4 Playlist That Goes Boom!

July 4 is truly America's national holiday, because it combines two of the country's grandest traditions: Taking the day off work and blowing shit up. Because freedom isn't free, fireworks and other explosives are embedded in America's formative myths and our national character. Also, they're pretty ... More >>

Laura Bryant: Waco Nurse Lives Vegas High Life At ACM Awards

You win a contest, all expenses paid, to a major country-music awards show in Las Vegas. What happens next? Rocks Off will admit we had never even pondered that question until someone from Reliant Energy offered us a chance to interview the winner of Reliant's "Dream Trip of a Lifetime." The packag ... More >>

Strait Bonin' Turns Our Beloved Icon Into King Of Porn Country

Of course you all know that today is George Strait's 60th birthday, and the King Of Country just announced that he is coming back to RodeoHouston next spring for a March 17th date with Martina McBride and the Randy Rogers Band. What a great end that will be to a torrid week at SXSW in Austin. This w ... More >>

Darrell Scott: Loving Life Way Outside The Nashville Mainstream

Since moving to Nashville in 1995, 52-year-old Darrell Scott has had a career most who take that Hillbilly Highway to Music City USA would envy. A triple-threat talent, Scott was for years a session warhorse, a guy who could play about anything with strings on it as well as possessing a fantastic ea ... More >>

RodeoHouston Adds Special George Strait Concert March 17

It's getting a little late, but Rocks Off figured we can go ahead and tell you now. The Houston Livestock Livestock Show and Rodeo just announced a tweak in its schedule: There will be no bulls or broncs the final day of RodeoHouston 2013 -- a Sunday that happens to fall on St. Patrick's Day, March ... More >>

15 Things Rocks Off Learned Watching The ACM Awards

Sunday nights, I usually like to watch The Amazing Race after 60 Minutes. I don't usually watch much reality television at all, but something about the combination of total incompetence, vicious backstabbing and exotic locales as several, two-person teams race around the globe is completely intoxica ... More >>

Upcoming: Basshunter, Escape The Fate, Gipsy Kings, High On Fire, Jesus & Mary Chain

7horse: Mon., April 9. Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak, Houston. Allen Toussaint: Fri., March 9. Dosey Doe Coffee Company, 25911 I-45 N., Spring. The Wheeler Brothers, The Asteroid Shop, Antonio Estevan Huerta: Sat., April 7. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Basshunter: Fri., Feb. 24. Rich ... More >>

Last Night: Ten Man Jam At Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Michael LanierAlan Jackson​Holy honky-tonk hell, Houston. When you put on your cowboy boots, cowboy hats and drinking pants, you sure can throw down with the best of them. Wednesday night at Verizon Wireless Theater, 100.3 KILT continued its annual Ten Man Jam, with quite a solid li ... More >>

Rocks Off's Annual Descent Into Sunny 99.1's Christmas Music K-Hole

Since 2008, I have spent an hour listening to Sunny 99.1 FM's Christmas music for the Rocks Off blog. Right after Thanksgiving, it's the first thing on my checklist, right next to finding new, weird holiday music for you and trying not to gain 20 pounds in merriment by January. Most of the time on ... More >>

11 Albums with 11 in the Title at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11

​Personally, we're all pretty sick of the whole 11/11/11 thing. We know that "it goes to 11!" (thanks, Nigel) and it's funny how numbers work, but internet nerds seem to love it. So, in honor of all you nerds, we give you 11 albums with 11 in the title. Just for you, we even posted this at 11 ... More >>

George Strait's Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 15-11

​Today's installment of our 20 favorite George Strait songs, which we began Wednesday, comes with word that Billboard is projecting his brand-new Here For a Good Time to debut on top of next week's Billboard 200. It will take some work, but he could just knock off Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV. Wi ... 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 >>

Idol Beat: Durbin Warfare

It's James' world; we just live in it.​That wonderful sound you heard last night - that distinct lack of atonal screeching that used to climb up your spine like a mongoose wearing stiletto heels - was the sound of a Jacob-free American Idol. What a beautiful thing. I'm not sure which was more ... More >>

Last Night: Jason Aldean At RodeoHouston

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo​Jason Aldean Reliant Stadium March 20, 2011 You can tell everything you need to know about Jason Aldean by looking at his steel guitarist's forearms Sunday. First, he had a steel guitarist. Of the handful of Rodeo acts Aftermath saw this year ... More >>

Kid Rock

Last Night: Martina McBride At RodeoHouston

Photos by Marco Torres​Martina McBride Reliant Stadium March 9, 2011 Ain't no use in complaining, when you've got a job to do. With SXSW bearing down on us like a freight train and the Rodeo squeezing us like a vise, Aftermath basically wants to kill everyone but our cat right now. Then when ... More >>

KISS, Kid Rock, Janet Jackson Head 2011 Rodeo Lineup

​KISS, Janet Jackson and Kid Rock head the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's 2011 concert schedule, which the rodeo announced earlier Monday morning. Among the other 13 entertainers rounding out this year's lineup are recent rodeo stalwarts Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Lady Antebe ... More >>

Upcoming: Boz Scaggs, Genitorturers, Lucero, Etc.

​The Adicts: Wed., March 23. Warehouse Live. Al Stewart: Fri., April 29. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Badfish (Sublime Tribute), Full Service: Fri., Jan. 28. House of Blues. Black Veil Brides, DRUGS, I See Stars, Versaemerge: Sun., March 20. Warehouse Live. Bob Schneider: Fri., March 11. Hou ... More >>

A Fistful of Soul

One righteous vintage vinyl party.

Miranda Lambert Added To Rodeo's 2011 Lineup

Trace Adkins, Martina McBride, Hideout schedule also announced ​Miranda Lambert, the Lindale native currently nominated for five Grammys, including four for her album Revolution, will return to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo March 16 at Reliant Stadium, the rodeo announced this morning. ... More >>

Wrong Number

Houston's Miss Leslie dials up more honky-tonk homilies on her new CD.

Inquiring Minds: AC Pianist Jim Brickman, More Than Just "Jingle Bells"

​Rocks Off spoke with songwriter/pianist Jim Brickman recently. True, the AC piano king isn't the type of musician we usually focus on, but talent is talent and oh, yeah, a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Age Album for his CD Faith doesn't hurt.   Rocks Off: First, congratulations o ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Dear Local Musicians, Grammy Consideration Is Not the Same Thing As Grammy Nominations

Ah, here we go again with local artists trumpeting "Grammy nominations." The latest is Atascocita-grown country singer Susan Hickman, who seems to fancy herself as a Miranda Lambert/Martina McBride type. We stumbled across Hickman accidentally through MySpace's "Status Updates," and our eye was imm ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: R.I.P. Tim Krekel

Wherever you live, wherever you are/ Just love, love, love" - Tim Krekel, "Love One Another" It is with immense sadness that Lonesome, Onry and Mean reports that Louisville, Kentucky musician and songwriter Tim Krekel has passed away. Krekel had a large tumor removed from his stomach in April and s ... More >>

Before We Go: News on Girl In a Coma, Willie D, Live Nation, Nameless Sound, Golden Cities and More

Before heading to Fitzgerald's tonight, Girl In a Coma had to make a little pit stop: a courtroom in downtown Houston, where the band's Jenn Alva and Nina Diaz had a preliminary hearing for the felony assault on a peace officer charges stemming from the late-night brawl at Chances back in March. How ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Top 11

Photo by Ray Mickshaw / FOXPictured: Matt Giraud, exquisite gumline Traditionally, I've concluded the first Idol Beat of any given week with predictions as to who the American Idol judges or viewing public will send home the next night. This week I'm upending that, and predicting that no one will go ... More >>

Aftermath: Toby Keith at RodeoHouston

Photos by Mark C. AustinIt's easy to see why Toby Keith is so popular... until he opens his mouth to sing. The 47-year-old singer, actor and tireless Ford pitchman has the kind of easygoing, big-galoot charisma that would make him an ideal drinking buddy. No doubt that's why so many of his so ... More >>

Noise's Handy Holiday Local-Music Gift Guide

Analyzing Bocephus's "McCain-Palin Tradition"

Elephant Walk

Giddyup!: Full RodeoHouston Lineup Announced

Friday Chart Check

Bling Twango

Big & Rich delivers country music without prejudice

Beyond the Bovine

Christian cowboys, carnivals and Chianti await you at the rodeo

A Nashville Star Is Born

Former Richmond Strip denizen Sheila Marshall makes it all the way to Music City

Deryl Dodd

Friday, August 16

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