Roger Miller

Last Night: Mission of Burma at Fitzgerald's

Mission of Burma, The Gary, Black Congress Fitzgerald's September 13, 2012 In a day and age when so many of the great groups from yesteryear seem to be reuniting solely for a paycheck, it's refreshing to see a band treat its own reformation as a chance to make up for lost time. After influencing m ... More >>

Mission of Burma

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: Rosie Flores, Otep, Mission of Burma, Etc.

Rosie Flores, the Austin-based "Rockabilly Filly" and onetime L.A. cowpunk scenester who played the Continental Club with Mike Stinson in late July, circles back around to celebrate her birthday Tuesday at KPFT's monthy free-show series "Troubador Tuesdays" at Natachee's Supper & Punch. Back then, ... More >>

Mel Tillis: Coca-Cola Cowboy

At 80, first-time author isn't done yet.

The American Bandstand (Extended) Hot 100

Somehow it's hard to believe that Dick Clark was only 82 years old when he died after suffering a "massive heart attack" Wednesday morning in Santa Monica, Calif. (Since I managed to survive one myself, I've noticed that anytime someone dies of a heart attack, it's always "massive."). Despite his yo ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 5

While Houston played a huge part in the early history of country music, by the end of the 1950s a new breed of artist was coming on the scene. Western Swing, for all purposes, was a relic, and although honky-tonk was still a force in the charts and on radio, its share of the pie was waning. The arr ... More >>

Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Encyclopedia Of Country Music

With 53 related entries, Houston fared well in the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music (Oxford University Press, $65), released last month, the first revision of the 600-page volume since its initial printing in 1998. Michael McCall, Country Music Hall of Fame archivist and one of t ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Nathan Wells of Beaver's

​This week, we paid a visit to Beaver's to meet bartender Nathan, or "Dollar Wells," as he's called. It was pretty dead at 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday as I sat at the bar, beautifully littered with several rocks glasses filled with different-colored concoctions. Nathan tells me they're making some la ... More >>

Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" And Other Household Items That Need Theme Songs

​OK, we've never been devout Toby Keith fans. At all. Our image of him changed though as we heard more of his politics, post-"Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue" and he came out as a fan of gay marriage and gays in the military. Who says all country guys have to be right-wing torchbearers any ... More >>

Last Night: Robert Ellis & The Boys At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Robert Ellis & the Boys (CD release), Jonny Corndawg Fitzgerald's July 6, 2011 See more Photographs from Ellis' homecoming in our slideshow. Robert Ellis' record release show last night wasn't short on thrills, from the openers to the closing moments from Ellis and his ... More >>

Photographic Memory

Robert Ellis heads into the great wide open on his first New West LP.

Lyrical Advice For The Class Of 2011

"Move back in with your parents! Let them worry about you!"​There will be no guitars and Marshall stacks at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend, just "Pomp and Circumstance." As the Class of 2011 walks across the stage soon to be occupied by Peter Gabriel, Widespread Panic and Ki ... More >>

Rocks Off's Fantasy RodeoHouston Lineup

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show & RodeoGeorge Strait in 1996​If you walk through Reliant Center, hanging from the ceiling are banners listing almost every musical performer RodeoHouston has hosted since the '60s. The names reflect the hallowed history of country and fleeting fancies ... More >>

Scott Miller

Mickey Newbury: Houston's Forgotten Genius

"Hank Williams' pain songs, Newbury's train songs/ And 'Blue Eyes Cryin' In the Rain' - Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings, "Luckenbach, Texas" ​Lonesome, Onry and Mean was sitting around having a few cold pops the other night when we put on The Best of Mickey Newbury. It wasn't long before the ... More >>

Ray Price

He Said She Said: Did We Shave Our Legs For This? More Cornball Country Comedy

Not all country music has to be about down-and-out truck-driving lifestyles, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, abusive husbands and the dissolution of the American Dream. More than any other genre, country lends itself so nicely to parody and self-satire. The best country music is self-referential, where the artist k ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Bob "Crazy Heart" Woodruff Reflects on "King of the Road"

For a country singer who vanished from sight for ten years, Los Angeles songwriter Bob Woodruff has been in the press quite a bit lately. Two weeks ago, the Huffington Post (ahem) compared him to Bad Blake in the Oscar-nominated movie Crazy Heart, and Andrew Dansby of the Houston Chronicle devoted ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Our Pal Arty Hill Picks His Favorite Songs About Drunk Women

Arty Hill is a Baltimore, Md., honky-tonker who has been playing regularly in Austin the past couple of years. He also reads Lonesome Onry and Mean's blog religiously and has already penned a couple of new songs based on the goings-on in these pages. He recently contacted LOM about Mike Stinson's l ... More >>

9/9/09: Songs With a Certain Number in the Title

​As Hair Balls pointed out, we've only got three more of these weird number/same number/same number days left this century after today. Such chronological repetition appeals to the hidden obsessive-compulsive in all of us, so join us as we wash our hands nine times, lock the door nine times, and l ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas, Part 2: "Trinity"

[Note: This week Rocks Off is looking at the musical heritage, highs and lows, for each of the five possible states that might result should Texas secede from the U.S. like Gov. Rick Perry wants it to. Yesterday we began with the Panhandle/West Texas "Palo Duro" territory; today it's northeastern qu ... More >>

Last Call For Art: Shakespeare, Etiquette & The Big Show

Pin Lim, Forest Photography​Several stage shows are giving their final perfomances this weekend, and it's also your last chance to see unknown Houston artists aim for recognition in the Lawndale Center's annual Big Show.The Houston Shakespeare festival always does a bang-up job with the Bard, and ... More >>

Big River

Web exclusive!

Lonesome Onry and Mean: John Doe & the Sadies' Country Club

Lonesome, Onry and Mean likes him some country music done right, so it was with considerable delight that we listened to Country Club by X bassist/singer John Doe and the Sadies. An L.A. rocker and a Canadian alt-country outfit seem like unlikely musical bedfellows, but Country Club works from the f ... More >>

RodeoHouston Books Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift

Just How Texan are Hayes Carll and Miranda Lambert?

Mike Stinson

Aftermath: Shinyribs at Under the Volcano

The Return of Cactus Music and Video

A beloved local institution returns from the grave

The Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Scene!

Ideas toward a Houston-style musical Day of the Dead

Southern Culture on the Skids

Concert preview

In His Prine

Songbird Silenced

Pioneering singer/songwriter and native Houstonian Mickey Newbury passes away

Musical Chairs

It's never the same show with the Good Luck Band

The Mild Ones

The young gentlemen of rockabilly, San Antonio's Cave Catt Sammy

On the Off-Road Again

Country legend Ray Price continues to take the path less traveled

Rotation

Fu Manchu King of the Road

Rotation

Fu Manchu

Talkin' Townes Van Zandt

Despite years of commercial and self neglect, the songs are still coming through