Ray Charles

Idol Chatter

Guitar Shorty

The Houston 100: The Best Bayou City Songs Ever

The Houston 100: From Scarface to Robert Earl Keen

The Houston 100: From Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown to Texas Johnny Brown

Drenched In Blog: Hayden Panettiere (Mis)cast in Plasmatics Biopic

Five Songs for MLK Day

Classic Rock Corner: Blues/Soul/R&B In Memoriam 2008

Ah, that nasty Grim Reaper took a lot of great musicians this year, and his scythe cut a wide swath across all genres, including many heavyweights in the blues and R&B world. The greatest loss comes in the form of someone who was a man, a song, and a beat all in one... Bo Diddley, singer-songw ... More >>

Rotation

Ah, that nasty Grim Reaper took a lot of great musicians this year, and his scythe cut a wide swath across all genres, including many heavyweights in the blues and R&B world. The greatest loss comes in the form of someone who was a man, a song, and a beat all in one... Bo Diddley, singer-songw ... More >>

Love's Labors

Ah, that nasty Grim Reaper took a lot of great musicians this year, and his scythe cut a wide swath across all genres, including many heavyweights in the blues and R&B world. The greatest loss comes in the form of someone who was a man, a song, and a beat all in one... Bo Diddley, singer-songw ... More >>

Charles in Charge

A new collection confirms Ray Charles's position as the architect of soul

Smart Pop

A new collection confirms Ray Charles's position as the architect of soul

Soul Brother No. 1

Top 10 reasons why Ray Charles is a genius

Ronnie Milsap

Top 10 reasons why Ray Charles is a genius

Guitar Shorty’s Birthday Party

The bluesman spends his b-day on stage

Arthur Alexander

Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter

You'll Want Mo

Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter

Worldly Moves

Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter

Guitar Shorty

Guitar Shorty performs Saturday, January 13, at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club, 5731 Kirby, 713-523-9999.

Where Do You Buy Your Hair?

...and other questions reporters can't ever ask

Double Vision

Jess and Lisa Origliasso give teen pop a harmonic jolt as the Veronicas

Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Last Night at the Alamo

A Grammy party at a local theater turns into quiz night down at the local pub

Messed Around

As Ray Charles, Jamie Foxx turns an ordinary bio into an extraordinary one

Queen of Smack

Ray Charles, Bill Cosby -- even herself -- Wanda Sykes dogs 'em all

Hallelujah, I Just Loved Him So

RIP, Brother Ray

Ray Charles

RIP, Brother Ray

Don Wilkerson

The Complete Blue Note Sessions (Blue Note)

Eric Clapton

Reptile (Reprise)

...Newman!

With a sound as fat as Texas, David "Fathead" Newman returns home

Soul Nite

From Motown to the Orange Show, that’s quite a trip

Listening Room: What's Been Tickling Our Earholes Lately

As Rocks Off has noted in our periodic Mail Call entries, even though the tide of promo CDs has been greatly reduced by the digital revolution - Rocks Off can count on one finger (the middle one) the times he's actually used the streaming/download email link publicists are ever more fond of these d ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Bun B, Trae & Lil Keke, Rihanna, Snoop, Eminem vs. Nick Cannon, Jay-Z, T.I., E-40, South Park Mexican and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Grey Cassette," Trae feat Bun B and Lil Keke Wire To Wire Ummm, we're not going to link to them, but s ... More >>

Joe Cocker

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Grey Cassette," Trae feat Bun B and Lil Keke Wire To Wire Ummm, we're not going to link to them, but s ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: We Are Not Ready for Christmas Music in October... or Ever, Really

​Let the Madness begin. No, not March Madness, nincompoop - it's October. Christmas Madness. Lonesome Onry and Mean doesn't know who officially decides these things, all we know is that it's the first week of October, Halloween hasn't even come and gone yet, but in the past 24 hours we've received ... More >>

On Its 40th Birthday, the Top 10 Sesame Street Musical Guests

Sing the blues, Kermit... or greens. We know how you feel. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Elmo and Grover have something to celebrate. Sesame Street, their fictional New York borough, and the television show probably responsible for everything you knew as a kid, turns 40 today. Created ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Between Darius Rucker and Charley Pride, There Was Otis Williams

Darius Rucker's award as the Academy of Country Music's New Artist of the Year recently made him the first black artist to take a significant country award since Charley Pride ruled Nashville in the early '80s. Rucker's "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" marked the first time a black artist had e ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Talking Christmas Music With Aaron Neville

​Even for a stone-cold atheist (which Rocks Off is not), listening to Aaron Neville sing "O Holy Night" has to be one of the true pleasures of the Western world. The best-known voice of New Orleans' No. 1 soul-funk family dynasty thanks to songs like "Tell It Like It Is" and Linda Ronstadt duet "D ... More >>

Hit the Road, Jack: 10 More Notable Musical Deaths From the Past Decade

​ Looking back, this past decade wasn't too kind to rock and roll as a whole. We lost plenty of people who weren't exactly disgustingly huge as Michael Jackson or as monolithic as Johnny Cash. This decade took its share of people who were massively influential and iconic, but not on the grand worl ... More >>

Idol Beat: Jamie Foxx, Why?

​This is really it? These are the four best singers the Idol producers could come up with? Last night's competition episode, featuring Crystal, Mike, Lee, and Casey, was one of the dullest in weeks, built on the kind of dry and forgettable performances that got everybody else sent home. The on ... More >>

American Idol: Jamie Foxx, Why?

​This is really it? These are the four best singers the Idol producers could come up with? Last night's competition episode, featuring Crystal, Mike, Lee, and Casey, was one of the dullest in weeks, built on the kind of dry and forgettable performances that got everybody else sent home. The on ... More >>

Five Guys Named Moe

Louis Jordan is the guy who originally got the joint jumping

Top 10 Honorary Texas Musicians

West Vita​Right here, right now, and in print all damn week, you can read the Houston Press' interview with perhaps the hottest new band on the South 40, San Antonio's Hacienda (above). Whether or not they go on to become a South Texas Kings of Leon - Hacienda is also three brothers and a cous ... More >>

The Radiators

West Vita​Right here, right now, and in print all damn week, you can read the Houston Press' interview with perhaps the hottest new band on the South 40, San Antonio's Hacienda (above). Whether or not they go on to become a South Texas Kings of Leon - Hacienda is also three brothers and a cous ... 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 >>

Top 5 Songs About Being Dead Broke

​Rocks Off caught a little of the coverage of the Obama adminstration and Congress' deadlock over the country's impending default on its debt this morning. We could barely make heads or tails of it, but the underlying message was fairly clear: Holy shit, are we ever fucked. We are already abo ... More >>

What The "Top 10 Stolen Vehicles" List Says About Houston

Stolen, by manly men​Every month Houston police put out a list of the most-often stolen vehicles, a list that defines what are either the most vulnerable or most desirable members of our automotive society. This month's is out....what does it tell us about Houston? 3. Our car thieves want yo ... More >>

With a Rebel Yell: 10 Rockers Gone Country

Photo by Matthew KeeverAaron Lewis at the Verizon Wireless Theater in 2010.​When Staind singer Aaron Lewis rolls into Verizon Wireless Theater tomorrow night, odds are he'll leave his mudshuvel back at the hotel. As modern rock radio turns to the next generation of angst, the former Fred Durs ... More >>

The Lion Of The Blues: Happy Birthday Bobby "Blue" Bland

​Today marks the 82nd birthday of Hall of Fame blues man Robert Calvin Bland, better known as Bobby "Blue". In a case of being "in the right place at the right time", Mr. Bland was born in Rosemark, Tennessee in 1930, then moved to Memphis at eighteen to begin his career. He became an original ... More >>