Rodney Crowell

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.

The Coolest and Uncoolest Songs About America's Coolest City (Us)

Above is Dean Martin doing "Houston" on his television show. Epic fail, but nice outfit. As you may have read, Forbes magazine recently determined that, by their measurement criteria, Houston is now America's coolest/hippest city. Of course, while the rest of the world has looked down its nose for ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 7

Three former Houstonians who have been included in the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Country Music defy all odds. To call Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, or Steve Earle a "country songwriter" or a "country singer" is the grossest simplification. All three have a huge streak of the folk traditi ... More >>

Top Five Cannibal Country Songs

​Songs about singers and other songs has long been one of Rocks Off's favorite fields of study within the wide-ranging curriculum of popular music. Off the very tippy-top of our heads, ABC's "When Smokey Sings," the Replacements' "Alex Chilton" and the Pogues' "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda ... More >>

Artopia, Honky Tonk Blood & A Gang Of Music News

​Another Friday, another Magnolia City Mixtape, assembled just for you. Seriously, we put in a lot of time crawling through the internet just to bring everyone up to date on the scraps of local music news floating out there in the cyber-abyss. For this week's soundtrack, how's about this inst ... More >>

Chinaberry Reflections

Houston Kid Rodney Crowell learns to "fail better."

Pickin' on Nashville

Vince Gill centers himself through bluegrass and digs Miranda Lambert.

Joe Ely, Bobby Womack Top Early 2011 Concert Picks

Jason WolterJoe Ely (left) and David Grissom at iFest 2010​Lonesome Onry and Mean got a Facebook event invitation Monday that caused us to panic and pull our credit card out so we could be sure we had a ticket. And in doing so, we realized that 2011 is upon us and we have some planning ahead t ... More >>

Lonesome Onry And Mean Plays "Spin The iPod" (Almost)

​Facebook, that great time-waster, is always a source of mindless brain candy. Just a few moments ago, Lonesome, Onry and Mean was tagged in a note titled "15 Random iPod Songs." The rules were fairly straightforward: Put your unit on "random" and list the first 15 songs that play. This sound ... More >>

Marshall Chapman: More Fun Than A Three-Legged Goat

​Songwriter extraordinaire, guitar-slinger, author and Southern belle supreme Marshall Chapman will be playing her first Houston gig in ages Thursday, February 17, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck. According to Chapman, Tuesday night's release party at Nashville's Bluebird for her latest album, Big ... More >>

Died and Gone to Houston

City is ready for another honky-tonk close-up.

Inquiring Minds: Elizabeth Cook on Rodney Crowell, Florida Folk and "Apron Strings"

​Most mornings, Rocks Off wakes up to Elizabeth Cook's country-as-cornbread drawl on her Outlaw Country satellite-radio program, "Apron Strings" (Sirius 63, XM 13, 5-9 a.m. Mondays). On her 2007 LP Balls - produced by the Houston Kid himself, Rodney Crowell - Cook was as frank and charming on song ... 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 >>

Houston 101: Magnolia Gardens -- Houston's Rockin' Little Riverside Beach

It may not look like much today, but back in the '50s and '60s, Magnolia Gardens was the place to be if you liked country music and rockabilly. The open-air dance hall/bandstand on the banks of the San Jacinto River was in a resort-like setting, with a restaurant or two and a few boat ramps scatter ... More >>

Screen Plays

Chatter's Ever-So-HandyAC/DCtionary

Rock Around the Clock

Can't Get It Out of My Head: "Ain't Livin' Long Like This"

Waylon Jennings, "Ain't Livin' Long Like This," live in 1980 Rocks Off is a big musical-phase guy. It's not unusual for him to get stuck - if "stuck" is indeed the proper word - listening to an artist or genre for weeks or months at a time. This summer it was Tom Petty (which he's still& ... More >>

Texans Score 30 Grammy Nominations

Allison Krauss, Robert Plant and T-Bone Burnett (far right) Texas artists landed 30 nominations in 20 categories when the contenders for the 51st annual Grammy Awards were announced today, including all five nominees for Best Tejano Album and four of the five Best Norteno Album contenders. All of ... More >>

Turkey Trot

Artists choose the songs that rocked their 2008 worlds

Rodney Crowell, Forever the Houston Kid

Gasoline Dreams

The Best of ACL Fest

Rodney Crowell: Sex & Gasoline

Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith

Grand Theft Auto X: The Screwston Chronicles

Weekend Music: A Speeding Motorcycle and Lots More

No Mas No Depression: The Alt-Country (or Whatever That Is) Journal Shuts Down

Sole of Houston: This One's for Rory Miggins

Pop Numerology: How High Can You Go?

Give Us a Hand

The Houston 100: From Guy Clark to Don Williams

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

Various Artists

Heartworn Highways

Snit's Dog and Pony Show

Friday, April 7, at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club, 5731 Kirby, 713-523-9999

Bayou City Music Mindbender, Part II

Another chance to test your knowledge of local lore

The Return of the Houston Kid

Rodney Crowell comes back to town with yet another great album under his belt

"I Raq and Roll" vs. "We Can't Make It Here"

Two Houston-connected musicians offer up different takes on the war. One veteran tells Racket which he thinks is better and why.

Los Super 7

Heard It on the X

Pop Quiz

Think you know local music? Take the Bayou City Music Mindbender and find out.

Let the Picture Paint Itself

The Houston Kid hits his stride a quarter-century into his recording career

Always Darkest Before the Dawn

Trotting out the clichés for a year-ender piece

Rodney Crowell

Tuesday, August 26

The Gift Of Music

2001’s top ten picks

Playbill

Willie Nelson's Family Picnic

Mount Coy

South Park Mexican carves out his place in history with the 2001 Music Awards

Houston Kid

Rodney Crowell sets his topsy-turvy East End childhood to music

Emmylou Harris

Red Dirt Girl (Nonesuch)

Homeward Bound

A trip back to Houston for Rodney Crowell is a trip back in honky-tonk time

A Bug to Be Different

With the Cicadas, Rodney Crowell exits Nashville's cocoon

Rotation

Elvis and Other Attractions