Subject: Mike Stinson

• Playbill: Dave Knudsen’s Mojo Rises

  August 2, 2007

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Jon Byrd Tunes Up Country

  September 3, 2008

• Tonight: Randy Weeks at Discovery Green

  November 6, 2008

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: A Sweet Piece of Art for Sweetheart

  My California compadre Charlie McGovern, who produces records by interesting people like Tony Gilkyson (Goodbye Guitar), Victoria Williams (Sings Some Ol' Songs), and Mike Stinson (Last Fool At the Bar), is also Salinas, California's biggest booster and amateur historian. It's all in a day's work for me to receive out-of-left-field emails from McGovern telling me he just visited Doc Ricketts' lab (the "Doc" in John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat) or some other mind-boggling piece of history associat

  January 21, 2009

• Under the Volcano Calls Out the Rodeo

  Under the Volcano has announced new bookings for March. Owner Pete Mitchell is launching what he hopes to turn into an annual month-long series to run during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. "I haven't come up with a name for it yet - the Anti-Rodeo Series, the Real Country Series, something like that," says Mitchell. "You'd think the Rodeo would at least have one token country music day in a whole month, but all they've booked is the same old tired, stale country-radio acts or st

  February 11, 2009

• Mike Stinson

  July 10, 2008

• Looking for a hit

  Mike Stinson, Nashville and an eight-minute bottle of wine

  October 12, 2006

• Randy Weeks, with Tony Gilkyson and Mike Stinson

  4 p.m. Sunday, March 19, in-store at Sig's Lagoon, 3710 Main, 713-533-9525; 7 p.m. show at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999

  March 16, 2006

• Cheating the Reaper

  Vic Chesnutt died 20 years ago. Catch him live this week.

  June 19, 2003

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Comment on This One, We Dare You

  Back in the Near Dark Ages when LOM was in grad-school journalism, one of the things that stuck with me was a lecture on "the lunatic fringe." These are the people who call in to radio talk shows or send long, vitriolic letters to newspapers, magazines and blogs. Negative reviews always bring out the lunatic fringe. Take, for instance, my recent review of David Serby's Honkytonk and Vine. Statistically speaking (or writing), the Houston Press publishes positive reviews a good 95 percent of the

  May 1, 2009

• L.A. Honky-Tonk King Mike Stinson Moves to... Houston?

  It was official at 1:45 a.m. this early morning: Mike Stinson, king of the L.A. honky-tonkers - author of Dwight Yoakam's "The Late Great Golden State," among many others - has arrived in Houston. And this is not just a visit. Stinson recently told LOM that after several trips to Houston in the last four years he liked Houston a lot and was thinking he needed a change of scene from L.A. after 11 years there. "People kept telling me I ought to move to Austin," Stinson says, "but the more I thoug

  July 15, 2009

• Leaving L.A.

  July 30, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Blacktop Gypsy and Shurman

  Two fine bands who don't come through much are playing just blocks apart tonight. Dallas's Blacktop Gypsy will be knocking the audience out with their amazing harmonies and the virtuosity of fiddler Heather Stalling (wife of Max Stalling) and former Lake Jackson resident Rodney Pyeatt. Stalling was raised in a family of string players and has been doing fiddle contests since she was four years old. She's played with Ed Burleson, Mark David Manders, and others in the Texas music scene. Pyeatt wa

  July 30, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: My Son, the Guitar-Slinger

  William Michael SmithLance Smith (left) and Mike Stinson​ LOM grew up in the oil patch, made a good living in it, saw the world because of it. So it made sense to want our son, Lance, to grow up to be a petroleum engineer. Alas, it was not to be. Now he's a guitar player. Two years into the petroleum engineering program at University of Houston, LOM and the wife pulled the plug on Lance's financing. The logic? Exxon doesn't hire engineers with C averages who majored in frat party and skirt-cha

  August 5, 2009

• Aftermath: Mike Stinson at Under the Volcano

  Photos by Chris Gray​ At his first proper gig since relocating to Houston last month, suit-clad Mike Stinson raised the bar for honky-tonk around here a little. Maybe a lot. Joined by guitarist Lance Smith and Winfield Cheek on keyboards, steel and mandolin, Stinson sang his way through a jukebox's worth of field notes on various fools on stools in a nasal tone reminiscent of Buck Owens' Bakersfield buddy Webb Pierce. Stinson, Smith and Cheek eased into the first of their two sets, alternatin

  August 6, 2009

• MP3 of the Day: Pickin' Party at McGonigel's Mucky Duck

  ​ Tonight's installment of the Mucky Duck's monthly Songwriters in the Round series might as well be co-sponsored by Under the Volcano. Taking the stools will be recent Houston transplant Mike Stinson and Lance Smith, who put on a graduate-level seminar in honky-tonk history and current events last Wednesday at the Bissonnet bar, and return September 2. And the female participants, singer-songwriters Lise Liddell and Teresa Kolo, have both logged time behind the microphone at Volcano's weekly

  August 11, 2009

• Jesse Dayton - Sorry, "Captain Clegg" - on Rob Zombie and His Role In Halloween II

  Jesse Dayton's star just keeps rising. You have to give the former Beaumont lad credit, he works at it steadily, and these days has his finger in writing, performing, producing, and acting as well as operating a label. As anyone who checks Facebook knows, Dayton posts something about every twenty minutes about his role as Capt. Clegg, murdererous psychobilly band leader in Rob Zombie's latest horror flick, Halloween 2, which was #3 in box office receipts last week. We caught up with Dayton bri

  September 1, 2009

• Lonesome Onry and Mean: Sideman Supreme Rick Shea Hits the Mucky Duck

  Rick Shea is one of the most in-demand sidemen in the Los Angeles area. Seven years on the road with Dave Alvin certainly boosted Shea's profile outside the L.A./SoCal scene, but the Alvin gig is only one of many. Shea cut his teeth in the truck stops and roadhouses in his native San Bernardino and has played with Angeleno psychedelic country faves I See Hawks In L.A., eclectic Mexican roots band Tremoloco, honky-tonk angel Heather Myles and about anyone else who needs a guy as handy with a la

  October 2, 2009

• Slide Show: Scenes from the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival

  Michael PittmanL-R: Jesse Dayton, Mike Stinson and Davin James twang it up in Montgomery County.​ When the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival says "rain or shine," they mean it. The rains poured Friday night and Sunday, but that didn't keep the festival from drawing a huge crowd on Saturday when the weather was cool and perfect. And the music was stellar from start to finish. Click here for a slideshow.

  October 12, 2009

• Mike Stinson Added to Tonight's Troubador Tuesday at House of Blues

  If you're into song swaps by serious writers, today's Troubadour Tuesdays happy-hour show at House of Blues should be right up your alley. KPFT disc jockey Rick Heysquierdo has just announced that Mike Stinson will be sharing the stage with Oklahoma folk rocker Jubal Lee Young. Young's newest record, The Last Free Place In America, is his first to ever penetrate the Freeform Americana Radio charts, making it to No. 30 in its first week. Young is in the area for three weeks of gigs at various ve

  October 13, 2009

• Listology: Honky-Tonk Man Mike Stinson Chooses His Favorite Drinking Songs

  Markus Cuff​Honky-tonk man and recent Houston transplant Mike Stinson knows a thing or two about a bottle. Lonesome Onry and Mean asked him to list his all-time favorite drinking songs, many of which you will no doubt hear this evening at Under the Volcano. "So many classic drinking songs, I could put together a box set in a hurry," Stinson says, "but here are a few of my faves." 1. Webb Pierce, "There Stands The Glass" "The first song I sang at my very first show. So grateful that no tape exi

  October 14, 2009

• Wednesdays are Honky-Tonk Heaven In Houston, and Thursdays are Hillbilly Hell

  Photos by Chris GrayRobert Ellis & the Boys, under the blue neon​ It's no secret Rocks Off is a big fan of the country music, which is why we're starting to get a little excited about the inner-loop honky-tonk scene that's taking root. Over the weekend, we caught Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys doing their hemped-up Hank Williams thang at the West Alabama Ice House, and Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers' Sunday-evening sets (6-9 p.m.) at the Continental Club, a fine way to wind d

  November 5, 2009

• Honky-Tonk Revival

  November 19, 2009