Natalie Maines

Dixie Doc

Bartender, Pour the Wine: Ten Great Country Breakup Songs

Hellish Houston

A summer selection of the Bayou City's most miserable music and depressing songs

Chick Flick

A summer selection of the Bayou City's most miserable music and depressing songs

Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn performs Saturday, November 18, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Radical Chick

You can't tell Natalie Maines to Shut Up & Sing

blacktopGYPSY

blacktopGYPSY appears Thursday, September 28, at Mojo Risin' Coffeehouse, 1600 Shepherd, 713-426-1505.

Dixie Chicks

Taking the Long Way

Ultra Man

Champa is the champ of our DJ competition at South Beach

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Champa is the champ of our DJ competition at South Beach

Defending the Dirty Thirty

And coping with Yankee slander

Letters

And coping with Yankee slander

Made With Love

Rosanne Cash is the friend who will say, or sing, what you can't

Hissin' Dixie.

Country stars battle it out on the eve of war

Battle Cries

SXSW finds itself covered in thoughts of war

Age-Old Axiom

The Axiom can't seem to shake its past

Ruffled Feathers

The Dixie Chicks and other musicians are fighting for their rights -- and a bigger check

The Gift Of Music

2001’s top ten picks

Racket

Pinpointing when Texas music jumped the shark

Minibill

Stevie Nicks

Hear Them Tweet

The Dixie Chicks get spunky

Rotation

New Releases Reviewed

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 petrol ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: "Palo Duro"

View Five States of Texas in a larger map As any proud Texan can tell you, the Lone Star State is entitled constitutionally to split into five states if it so wishes. The scenario has rarely been more in the news than it has relatively recently, when Gov. Rick Perry played to the wingnut gallery in ... More >>

"We're Ashamed The President Is From Texas" And Other Acts Of Career Suicide

Seven years ago this week, the Dixie Chicks had the No. 1 country single in the U.S. with Bruce Robison's lump-raising "Travelin' Soldier." Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Bush Administration was putting the finishing touches on its Iraqi invasion strategy, which prompted Chicks lead singer Nat ... More >>

Rocks Off's Rodeo Concert Guide: Toby Keith, Ever The Angry American

Date: March 12 Name: Toby Keith AKA: "Mr. Boot in Your Ass" Genre: [This is our] country Best Known Song(s): "Beer for My Horses," "How Do You Like Me Now?", "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Ugly Angry American)" Key Demographic: Dick Cheney, ex-boyfriends of Natalie Maines, that surviva ... More >>

G.I. Blues: A Soldiers' Playlist

​Today is the anniversary of one of the truly momentous occasions in popular music: On March 23, 1958, Elvis Presley reported for induction into the U.S. Army, thus opening up a thousand alternate timelines for musical historians to formulate "What if he hadn't?" scenarios. For the next few years, ... More >>

Top 8 Post-2000 Soldier Songs

​Like many of you, Rocks Off has friends and family members who have served (or are serving) in our armed forces. Memorial Day is when we honor the sacrifice so many of them have made - and are still making - fighting America's wars. Songs about the hardships suffered by soldiers and their familie ... More >>

"Monkey With Arthritis": Top 10 Cattiest Musician Insults

​Think of Tony Bennett and you'll probably picture the kindly older gentleman crooning "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and any number of other pop standards, or perhaps the guy who upstaged Alec Baldwin as "Anthony Benedetto" (his birth name) on a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, turnin ... More >>

Pop Rocks on Sting: "Rock Stars...Is There Anything They Don't Know?"

You rotten flexible bastard.​ Sting. He's the artist we love to hate: Sting, everyone's favorite somnambulant acoustic pop star, has developed a somewhat checkered experience in Central Asia. In 2009, Gulnara Karimova--herself a fledgling pop singer under the name GooGooSha and daughter of ... More >>

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Music Fans Love Their A-Holes

You rotten flexible bastard.​Sting. He's the artist we love to hate. From The Atlantic: Sting, everyone's favorite somnambulant acoustic pop star, has developed a somewhat checkered experience in Central Asia. In 2009, Gulnara Karimova - herself a fledgling pop singer under the name GooGooSha ... More >>