Ray Benson

The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Collie Buddz, The Killers, Carolyn Wonderland, etc.

Collie Buddz House of Blues (Bronze Peacock Room), May 6 Just when the week is getting started, here comes the "Light It Up" tour to slow it down to a mellow Caribbean groove; you know what that means. Headlining over Cris Cab and New Kingston, Bermuda-raised Collie Buddz already has a solid Housto ... More >>

Steve Said Bringing a Bit of Dosey Doe to D.C. Inaugural Ball

Rocks Off wanted to know why Dosey Doe Music Cafe had cancelled its January 19 Ray Wylie Hubbard show, so we called and got a dosey dose of serendipity. As it turns out, owner Steve Said was asked to be the talent buyer for the Texas State Society of Washington D.C.'s Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Bal ... More >>

ACL 2012: Friday's 12 Best & Funniest Moments at Zilker

Check out our slideshow of the crowds at Day 1 of Austin City Limits. In the interest of being tidy and not boring you with minute details of the three-day exercise in sweaty and human endurance underway in Zilker Park this weekend, Rocks Off is giving you a break. Our team on the ground at the Aus ... More >>

Upcoming: Geoff Tate, Jill Scott, Action Bronson, Propain, Two Gallants, Etc.

The 71's: Sat., Sept. 15, 1 p.m., Free. Cactus Music & Video, 2110 Portsmouth St., Houston. Action Bronson: Sat., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., $15/$23. Numbers, 300 Westheimer, Houston. Another Run, The Soapbox Revolution: Sun., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $5/$10. Scout Bar Clear Lake, 18307 Egret Bay Blvd., Houston. ... More >>

Pat Green: "We're Still Totally In the Mix"

Earlier this morning, Rocks Off talked to Texas country star Pat Green, who plays the Coastal Conservation Association's "Concert for Conservation" Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park with his hero Jerry Jeff Walker, Sammy Kershaw, Gene Watson, and a few others. After more than a decade as both one ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Wednesday 3/14/2012

​If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving musi ... More >>

30 Seconds With Carolyn Wonderland

Carolyn Wonderland is in and of herself a grand Texas institution, and embodies the everything about us a musical people. We humbly knelt before her to find out what we could in 30 seconds. ​Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Carolyn Wonderland: After much consideration, it's a ... More >>

Evening Shadows

Carolyn Wonderland dusts her broom on new album Peace Meal.

Ray Benson: "Before Keith Richards, There Was Bob Wills"

​Although he grew up outside Philadelphia, Ray Benson is the quintessential Texas musician. Somewhere in his rambling South Austin studio/office compound is a proclamation declaring him the 2004 official state musician, not to mention the umpteen Grammys he's won as front man and bandleader of ... More >>

Heartless Bastards, Bright Light Social Hour, The Wheeler Brothers

Legislature Makes Western Swing Official Texas Music

News Flash: Hank Williams still not a Texan nodepression.comBob "Willis" & His Texas Playboys​It appears Rocks Off's efforts of a few weeks ago were all for naught. Despite presenting what we thought was a fairly persuasive San Jacinto Day argument to the contrary, earlier today the Texas L ... More >>

Lyle Lovett, Billy Gibbons Named Official Texas State Musicians

ZZ Top's Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were rumored to be appointed Texas' Offiical 2012 Alternate State Musicians.​With apologies to Townes Van Zandt, there's good news from Austin today. Good news for Houston. The Texas Commission on the Arts has chosen arguably the Houston area's two most rec ... More >>

The Five Most Texan Types Of Music

​Happy San Jacinto Day, fellow Texans and people who wish they were; i.e. everyone else. If you don't know why today is special, shame on you. But since us Texans are a friendly sort, allow Rocks Off to fill you in. On April 21, 1836, Texian forces under Gen. Sam Houston (aka "Big Drunk") lau ... More >>

Mojo Working

Shock-rocker Nixon foresees baby-making future for his music.

ZZ Top To Receive Texas Medal Of Arts

Jim BrickerZZ Top at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, September 2010​While they take their sweet time getting around to record that long-anticipated, Rick Rubin-produced next album - which, at this point, could well come out a solid decade after their last, 2003's Mescalero - ZZ Top has be ... More >>

Roger Wood and Andy Bradley, Wendy Hundere Parnell

San Antonio, Baby

The road to Raul Malo's heart goes straight through Doug Sahm's hometown.

Irlene Mandrell: Work Those "Thighs Of Texas"

​ Irlene Mandrell Texercise (1983) You already know the greats of Texas' recorded history. Roy Orbison. Lightnin' Hopkins. ZZ top. Jandek. But no Texas record collection is complete without this regional remnant of the exercise album craze, Irlene Mandrell's Texercise. Born in Corpus Christi, Irle ... More >>

Distant Early Warning: Anvil(!), David Cook, Lee Greenwood, Skatalites, Tanya Tucker, Tegan & Sara, etc.

​"13th Annual Pimp-N-Prostitute Ball" With MINIKISS, The Crisis, DJ Looney, DJ Jager, DJ Velvet: Sat., Oct. 31. Warehouse Live. Ali Zafar: Sat., Oct. 24. Arena Theatre. Anvil: Sun., Jan. 24. House of Blues. Brave Combo: Fri., Dec. 11. Dosey Doe Coffee Company. Buxton, Surfer Blood, F.G. and the G ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: More Reasons Why Best In Texas Is a Flaming Pile of Crap

Trilogy (n.): a set of three works of art that are connected and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works.​If euthanasia is ever legalized, one method might be to have the doctor read Ed Shane's monthly "Letter From the Publisher" in Best In Texas to the patient. Readi ... More >>

Rocks Off Pays a Call on El Campo

A postcard of "downtown" El Campo in the 1930s.This weekend, Rocks Off escaped a Czech family reunion to do some sightseeing around El Campo, the tiny hamlet just off U.S. 59. Before the silent auction, we made sure to gorge ourselves on free beer and kolaches before making a quick exit out the back ... More >>

Album(s) of the Week: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, The Tiffany Transcriptions

[Yes, that's right, it is Western Swing day on Rocks Off today...] Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys The Tiffany Transcriptions www.collectorschoicemusic.com Western Swing is an enigma for people outside Texas and the Southwest, who - if they spare a thought for it at all - tend to write it of ... More >>

Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel: Willie and the Wheel

Album of the Day: Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel's Willie and the Wheel

Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel Willie and the Wheel www.willieandthewheel.com The late Jerry Wexler, who passed away last August at age 91, was best known as an advocate and producer for top R&B and soul artists like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett. But Wexler was a ... More >>

Drenched In Blog: ACL Fest in Photos

James Hand

Saturday, September 16, at Borski's Tavern, 16245 Highway 75 North, Willis, 936-344-6212

Wheel Good Time

Scenes from a Picnic

Willie, Dylan, Kinky and the Ghost of Bob Willis descends on Fort Worth. Wack is there too.

Owed to Billy Joe

Today all the best poets are singers. That's why a singer should be Texas's next poet laureate.

Playbill

MOFRO

Dark Riders

The good, the bad and the ugly rock-star performance contracts

Wham, Bam, Thank You MAMH

The proposed Museum of American Music History could be the solution to our "image problem"

Alone Again, Naturally

After riding with the majors, born loner Darden Smith learns it's easier to drive yourself

Keeping the Faith

Don Walser's unwavering belief in traditional western music has attracted some powerful converts

Hillbilly Wheelies

Rotation

Static

Pure-D Purty

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