Marty Robbins

The Rocks Off 100: Kimberly McCarver, Missouri City's Meadowlark

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sometimes a hunch will pay off. Kimber ... More >>

Saturday Night: Ray Price at Stafford Centre

Ray Price Stafford Centre January 12, 2013 Ray Price has seen scoundrels, outlaws and pop-star pretty boys rule over country music for most of his lifetime, but he sounds determined to go out the same gentlemanly crooner he's always been, the picture of stoicism to the last. Price, who celebrated ... More >>

Proud UH Alum Larry Gatlin: If You Don't Like His Songs, "I Still Wrote Them"

Rocks Off reached native West Texan and proud UH alumnus Larry Gatlin, of 97.1 Country Legends mainstays Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band, first by phone at his hotel in Colorado, then again by phone the next day in San Antonio. Gatlin plays the Dosey Doe's "Big Barn" in The Woodlands Sunda ... More >>

10 Songs That Influenced Shovels & Rope

Tonight Shovels & Rope plays two sets at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, a venue that is quickly becoming their natural habitat here in Houston. The duo, made up of Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, is currently touring behind O' Be Joyful, released this past summer. Obviously, the group is gaining mucho s ... More >>

Shovels & Rope's Cary Ann Hearst On the Dying Record Industry & C.C. DeVille

Tonight husband and wife country duo Shovels And Rope play McGonigel's Mucky Duck, a venue that as of late has become their main Houston stomping grounds when they aren't opening for their friend Hayes Carll in bigger venues. The pair -- Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent -- just released their lat ... More >>

Rest Of The Best: Houston's Top 8 Jukeboxes

Along with pickled pig's feet and a steady supply of Slim Jims, a good jukebox is a prime element for any great bar. But, like dinosaurs, jukeboxes are a vanishing breed. Unlike digital jukes, iPods or DJs, jukeboxes require love, care and maintenance, as well as -- among the truly great ones -- som ... More >>

10 Songs That Helped Make Nick 13's Country Debut

​Tiger Army's Nick 13 delivered his self-titled solo debut this year, and the lead singer of one of the past decade's biggest psychobilly bands has made one of the most enjoyable traditional country records of 2011 not called Photographs. Yes, this 10-song set from the man you first met on t ... More >>

Five Filthy Conway Twitty Ditties Sure To Get Her To Press Charges

The tighter the pants, the stronger the pull. ​True story, back when we were trying to pick out Twitter handles in 2008, we almost went by @ConwayTwitter, but we instead went for a real name. Now the handle is taken, probably by someone who doesn't even like Conway Twitty, who would have been ... More >>

Top Five Clint Eastwood Soundtracks

pasoroblesfilmfestival.comDr. John, Clint Eastwood and producer/director Bruce Ricker in a publicity photo for "Piano Blues," Eastwood's installment of PBS' 2003 series The Blues.​Today the one and only Clint Eastwood turns 81 years old, and he can still kick your ass. According to the Interne ... More >>

No Shame

Dr. Dog shrugs off faint praise.

Six Songs That Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

​If there's one musician whose advice is worth heeding, it ought to be Johnny Cash. But when the Man in Black sang "Don't Take Your Guns To Town," a whole lot of musicians must not have been listening. Perhaps they were tuning in one of Cash's other songs that takes a different point of view - ... More >>

Rocks Off's Top 10 Favorite Story-Songs

​The Internet wants to kill Gordon Lightfoot - back in February, someone started a rumor that the Canadian troubadour was dead. Of course it started on Twitter, of all places, where an offhand remark about a celebrity death will be held as fact. Hell, the other night we killed Tim Allen and To ... More >>

Long Way Down

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Beat the Devil's Tattoo is the reverb-heavy rockers' most cohesive LP yet.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Songwriting Scholar Steve Young Blasts Nashville's "Yuppa-billys"

For Lonesome, Onry and Mean, they don't come much taller or wiser than Steve Young. Young has been in a love/hate relationship with Nashville and the major labels since he came to town in the early Seventies. Along with Billy Joe Shaver, Young wrote the major anthems of the Outlaw movement that tip ... More >>

Stirred and Shaken

Rebels Honky Tonk's Mother-Effer

Stirred and Shaken: Rebels Honky Tonk's Mother-Effer

Photo by Troy Fields​At Rebels Honky Tonk (5002 Washington, 713-862-7172), the classics are relegated to the bathroom. The record jackets mounted on the men's-room wall feature the likes of Willie Nelson and Marty Robbins, but on a recent Wednesday night a couple KILT-FM DJs were pumping nothi ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Grandfathers

​ She Said has something she wants to admit. Here goes nothing. We... like... country music. No big deal, right? You wouldn't think so, unless you grew up in a town filled with racist rednecks who thought the glitz of '90s Nashville qualifies for the only music worth listenin' to. She Said rebelle ... More >>

The Quotable Bono

The loquacious Irishman is pathologically incapable of keeping his opinions to himself.

Leaving L.A.

West Coast honky-tonker Mike Stinson shocks his peers by moving to Houston.

Dexter Romweber Duo

Lonesome Onry and Mean: R.I.P. Vern Gosdin

Foreground: Faron Young (leaning on piano), Tammy Wynette (at piano). Back row (l-r): Unidentified man, Hank Thompson, George Jones, Vern Gosdin, Marty Robbins "Don't you think you should've called To tell me you were coming down Oh, you look so out of place On this troubled side of town" - Vern Go ... More >>

Album of the Week: Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream

Bruce Springsteen is one prolific motherfucker. After all, he's produced one entire 4 CD box set (Tracks) of songs that he thought weren't good enough to be included on a regular album, and much of it still blew away anything in comparison. In that vein, we have Working on a Dream, coming littl ... More >>

Freddie Krc

God, Texas and Tom Waits

Tom Waits may not come from around here, but a good chunk of his favorite music does

Mike Ness, with Jesse Dayton

Grateful Coogs

Just Say No Más

In which we examine Cancuntry music

Fallout From This Year's Houston Press Holiday Party

John Lomax leaves the paper to pursue singing career after surprise debut

Ballads Nuevo

Corridos get updated with drugs and guns

World Class?

Houston can't join the ranks of other cities until it has an anthem of its own

On the Off-Road Again

Country legend Ray Price continues to take the path less traveled

Going Public

Dave Alvin's private loss inspires him to search for the eternal sounds

Like Fine Wine...

The Hollisters keep getting better with age

Roundabout Way

Cornell Hurd finally finds his musical niche

He's Ba-ack

Burt Bacharach's swanky pop stylings return to hipness

Border Songs

Pure-D Purty

Don Walser's yodeling can bring tears, even to the eyes of a Nashville record exec