Natalie Maines

Red, White, and Rehab: Country Music's 10 Douchiest Moments

It might be hard to believe, but the same musicians responsible for singing lyrics about big green tractors and diggin' up bones are also responsible for a lot of my Internet entertainment. You see, when famous people do douchey things, it makes me giggle. When those acts are committed by people t ... More >>

The Best Shows at SXSW This Year

This year Rocks Off and DC-9 at Night, the music blog at our sister paper Dallas Observer, teamed up to bring you only the choicest moments from last week's SXSW madness. John Fogerty: Creedence Clearwater Revival survivor John Fogerty gets overlooked as a riff-happy rocker, with most people concen ... More >>

Blake Shelton Has Helped Country's "Old Farts" More Than They Seem to Know

"Can't they just shut up?" That's the question many country music fans proffer when musicians publicly express opinions that dare venture outside of benign Q&A quicksand and into the murky waters of relevant social issues. Country consumers from both sides of the political aisle can get riled up i ... More >>

The 30 Best Texas Albums

Ranking the 30 best Texas albums of the past 30 years seemed like an impossible task. We did it anyway.

Speak Out: How Far Is Too Far When Musicians Talk Politics?

Imagine this: You go to a concert to see one of your favorite artists. Suddenly, mid-show, they start spewing political rhetoric. You disagree with their ideas, so you and many others leave. Free speech is something we claim to value in this country, but we are biased against opposing viewpoints. R ... More >>

¿Como se dice "Whoops?": 5 Musicians' Romney-esque Blunders In Foreign Lands

Mitt Romney had a troublesome time during his recent trip abroad, pissing off politicians and citizens in England, Palestine, and Poland (although to be fair, that last one was simply a guy who worked for Romney, not Romney himself). Besides providing a potential future Ted Nugent album name -- "Ki ... More >>

Wait a Minute! Who Is That? Top 10 Videos With Famous Actor Cameos

When you are an actor, you take basically whatever will feed you just as long as you get to perform. Many actors either got their start in music videos or they will appeared in one after they got famous. Oftentimes, they are pretty memorable.

Don't Tread on Me: The Top 10 Musical Celebrations of American Might

Rock and pop music in the United States has earned a distinguished reputation for quality protest anthems and anti-war songs, from Country Joe and the Fish all the way up to friggin' Green Day. And that's great; it really is. Not only are many of the tunes timeless, but criticism of our society's m ... More >>

Burn! Music's 12 Best Insults & Jabs

One of the not-so-fun things in the world is to get insulted or, in the words of Kelso from That 70's Show, get "burned." Now, let's imagine what it would be like to be insulted by some musician on one of their albums -- that "burn" I can only imagine was magnified by a million. Nevertheless, som ... More >>

6 Musicians Who Messed With Texas

Today, March 2, is Texas Independence Day, the day a bunch of old white politicians and landowners declared this part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas to be its own sovereign republic in a cabin near Washington-on-the-Brazos. For some inexplicable reason, Rocks Off does not have the day off ... 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 >>

"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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

"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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Bartender, Pour the Wine: Ten Great Country Breakup Songs

Chick Flick

Bruce Cockburn

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

Dixie Doc

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

Hellish Houston

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

Ultra Man

Champa is the champ of our DJ competition at South Beach

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Defending the Dirty Thirty

And coping with Yankee slander

Letters

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