Sam Cooke

The Rocks Off 100: K-Rino, South Park Coalition's Southside Maven

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there, too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? K-Rino has been such a longtime fixtu ... More >>

How the Mafia Helped Your Mama Do the Twist

Peppermint Twist: The Mob, the Music, and the Most Famous Dance Club of the '60s By Joel Selvin & John Johnson, Jr. with Dick Cami Thomas Dunne Books, 304 pp., $24.99 As far as dance crazes go, the Twist might go down (swiveling, of course) as the best known of all time. In 1961 and 1962, the sligh ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Restaurant Playlists

The only times I notice the music in a restaurant is when it's really bad (Christmas music playing year round at Sichuan Cuisine), really out of place (Nine Inch Nails blaring out of the speakers at now-closed Tony Vallone joint Ciao Bello or Cannibal Corpse washing over the line of patrons at Amy's ... More >>

ZZ Top: A Double-Sided Take On The New Texicali EP

Craig Hlavaty: What a way to tease your first album of original material in nine years, ZZ Top. You managed to record three songs and one ballad that instantly fit into your canon alongside the rest of your ballbusters without sounding like a classic-rock act reaching for straws. This is no weak, m ... More >>

Grady Gaines, the Upsetter

Houston sax lion has always been in the "hottest band around."

Friday Night: Rev. Al Green At Arena Theatre

Rev. Al Green Arena Theatre April 27th, 2012 Mark my words. If you check the local hospitals exactly nine months from now, you will surely see a spike in activity in the maternity wards. Al Green gets everyone and anyone into the baby-making mood. Even the comedian who opened the show alluded to th ... More >>

Playing for Keeps: Vinyl Essentials

Here's our must-haves if you're kick-starting a record collection.

Bobby Womack

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 member ... More >>

Friday Night: The Gourds & Doyle Bramhall Sr. At Miller Outdoor Theatre

Photos courtesy of Miler Outdoor Theatre Advisory BoardDoyle Bramhall Sr.​The Gourds, Doyle Bramhall Sr. Miller Outdoor Theatre July 22, 2011 It was all Texas big beat Friday night as old-school Austin blues-rocker Doyle Bramhall Sr. and those funny, funny Gourds cut a groove in the Miller Ou ... More >>

Ben Sollee

Last Night: Steve Earle At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Steve Earle & the Dukes and Duchesses House of Blues July 6, 2011 During her sublime set at Verizon a couple of weeks ago, Emmylou Harris mentioned how she thought Barack Obama was pretty okay, and how she hoped his election meant our society had evolved beyond the even ... More >>

Hippie Hour Scene: Last Concert Cafe

Knock, knock.​The Place: Last Concert Café 1403 Nance 713-226-8563 The Deals: $2 draft beers, $3 margaritas The Hours: 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. Mondays The Scene: This Monday, Houston's (alleged) longest happy featured one kind of draft beer (Shiner, ran out about 10:30 p.m.) and some mix-heavy ma ... More >>

Last Night: Fitz & The Tantrums At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Fitz & the Tantrums House of Blues Bronze Peacock Room April 18, 2011 Soul music is about power, yoking that gospel id to the pursuit of more worldly affairs, but it's also about subtlety. Grunt all you want, but smooth and steady wins the race (and wins over the ladies ... More >>

Out Today: Glee Warbles, Gorillaz Fall, Kinks Ride Again

​It's been a week since the Foo Fighters' album, Wasting Light, hit the stores, and Rocks Off has probably averaged at least one or two spins of the solid disc per day. Right now, we are actually on track four. Will anything top Light this week? That remains to be seen. Next week will bring ... More >>

Idol Beat: The Dirty Two Dozen

​The fallout from Jennifer Lopez's Wednesday night freakout only ate up about ten minutes of last night's show. At least, that's how much it looked like as I was fast-forwarding my DVR. You've got to hand that much the producers of American Idol, they can milk even the most trivial of incident ... More >>

Sam Cooke, Still Bringing It On Home

death2ur.com​Tomorrow, January 22, would have been R&B singer Sam Cooke's 80th birthday. No doubt he would be celebrating with a massive, star-drenched party with plenty of music and fanfare, and Beyonce Knowles sitting on his lap if he was lucky and Jay-Z was cool with it. Cooke died on Dec ... More >>

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 >>

R.I.P.: Notable Passings Of 2010

​Editor's Pick: Dio, man. Neph Basedow: 2010 commenced on a sad note with the passing of Memphis garage rocker Jay Reatard (aka Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr.). I'd seen him play a tiny show at Chicago's Empty Bottle in 2008 and still consider it one of the best shows I've ever seen. It was definitive ... More >>

Going Platinum: Artists We'd Pay $10,000 To See - And When

​It started one night on the patio of Big Star Bar in the Heights; over Lone Star and cigarettes, a handful of Houston music wags debated the shows they would pay top dollar to see from lartists, iving or dead. We argued the aspects of an At the Drive-In reformation, seeing Sam Cooke in 1963, ... More >>

"Summertime" From Beyond The Grave

​Today marks the 44th anniversary of Janis Joplin's first gig with Big Brother and the Holding Company. One of rock's most staggering vocalists, Joplin became another star who left us too soon on October 4, 1970, when she overdosed on heroin while recording Pearl. George Gershwin's "Summertime" wa ... More >>

R&B Legend Ivory Joe Hunter To Get State Historical Marker

​Rocks Off's predecessor John Nova Lomax, who normally reports on much more sordid goings-on in East Texas, tipped us off to a story in today's Beaumont Enterprise that reports late Texas R&B legend Ivory Joe Hunter will have an official Texas State Historical Marker erected at his gravesite n ... More >>

Somewhere Trouble Don't Go

The best Texas albums of 2009...or what we could squeeze in.

Vote With a Bullet: Songs for an Otherwise Ho-Hum Election Day

​ The run-up to the 2009 elections has been quite a letdown compared to the fascinating and occasionally surreal 2008 campaigns. Obviously, there's nothing that can compare to last year's Presidential contests, and the local mayoral race has been less than compelling. We were going to present this ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs for Getting It On, Part 2

[Ed. Note: Here's Web Editor Katharine Shilcutt's top 10 picks for baby-makin' music. Now it's the boys' turn.] 1. Ryan Adams, "Come Pick Me Up": This has to work, because it shows vulnerability and warmth. It tells her you are the kind of guy who will be the one to get out of bed to get the Wet On ... More >>

Seal

Little Joe Washington: Texas Fire Line

Local Album of the Week: Little Joe Washington's Texas Fire Line

Little Joe Washington Texas Fire Line www.dialtonerecords.com One of the easiest jobs in music has to be producer of a Little Joe Washington album. Make sure he shows up at the studio - itself no small feat, though not as difficult as it used to be - turn on the recording equipment and get out ... More >>

Roy Hargrove Quintet

Little Joe Washington's 70th Birthday

Free Show: Ben Sollee at House of Blues Downstairs

It's not every day you hear a cellist bust out socially aware, Randy Newman-esque pop yarns. Kentuckian Ben Sollee sings plaintive, soulful slices of song like the kind that made Newman famous and so very influential in the '70s. Sollee is only 24 years old, yet he somehow bridges the generation ... More >>

An American Idol From Jasper

We've had our Aggie American Idol. Now we have one from Jasper.Michael Sarver, according to those who watch American Idol, has gotten himself into the finals, or the semi-finals, or whatever it is that's a step beyond the comic-relief idiot tryouts.As the Beaumont Enterprise reports, Sarver is ready ... More >>

This Week in SXSW: Katy Perry Kisses the "Lake of Fire"

There's now less than a month to go until we here at Rocks Off throw sobriety and sane living to the wind at this year's SXSW festival. This past week we learned of a boatload of new stuff about the weeklong liver-damaging voyage in March, so here goes... The list of bands keeps growing and gro ... More >>

Tonight: Michael Hardie and Milton Hopkins at Red Cat Jazz Cafe

Wayne Brady

Actor/Comedian/Singer fronts Houston Symphony

Hootenanny

The Houston 100: From Scarface to Robert Earl Keen

James Hunter

Another overnight success 20 years in the making

Guitar Shorty’s Birthday Party

The bluesman spends his b-day on stage

Arthur Alexander

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.

Guitar Shorty

James Hunter

ames Hunter appears Friday, May 26, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899

Leela James, with Kem

Friday, March 17, Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1666

Eric Bibb, with Ruthie Foster and Cyd Cassone

Wednesday, February 4

Hi Del-Fi

New sounds from famed label

Radio Shy

Rotation

See and be Scene

Q Cafe may push style over substance, but substance comes through anyway

The Soul of Storyville