Tammy Wynette

RIP George Jones: Texas-Born Country Legend Dies at Age 81

George Jones, the Southeast Texas-born Country Music Hall of Famer whom most agree would be a face on Nashville's Mount Rushmore, has died at age 81. According to Fox News, repeating information from Jones' longtime publicist Kirt Webster, the singer died early Friday at Vanderbilt University Medica ... More >>

5 Great Songs by Psy Besides “Gangnam Style”

Notes on Nashville: Not Ready for Her Close-Up

On the fourth episode of Nashville, the past is quickly threatening to engulf the present for our stars, seasoned but conflicted Rayna and young but vulnerable Juliette. The show has officially finished introducing us to the characters, and moved on to introducing new people in the hopes of further ... More >>

Who Should Play RodeoHouston In 2013?

On October 30, just a few days from now, RodeoHouston will announce its first round of performers for the 2013 edition of the star-studded, yeehawin', nearly three-week event at Reliant Park. The booking the last few years has been getting more adventurous, with the likes of Kid Rock, KISS, Mary J. ... More >>

Notes on Nashville: The Finer Points of Sex and "Songwriting"

There's a saying in the music business that you have your whole life to make your first album, and a few months to make your next one. The second episode of a new TV show isn't quite the same thing (production schedule, for one), but it is just as useful for potential fans to decide whether or not t ... More >>

RIP Kitty Wells: Onetime Queen of Country Music Dies at 92

Legendary Nashville singer Kitty Wells has died at age 92, according to reports from Associated Press within the past hour. Wells was the first female to top the country charts with her song "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-tonk Angels" in 1952. The song was a reply to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side o ... More >>

Musical "Holograms" We Don't Want To See Anytime Soon (OK, Yes We Do)

A lot has been made about the Tupac "hologram" at Coachella. First off, it's not really a hologram as much as it is CGI "magic" and it's nothing new, seeing that they have been doing it Japan for a few years now. But they do lots of things in Japan. It's even to get swept up in the madness because ... More >>

Paul Thorn Wonders What The Hell Is Going On?

Paul Thorn is in Nettleton, Miss., standing in his front yard watching his 8-year old daughter bounce on the trampoline while he takes yet another interview call. Asked if another time would be better, he demurs. "No, no, no, this is great," drawls Thorn. "I understand and my family understands th ... 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 >>

Randy Travis' Arrest: Five Other Country-Music Arrests That Sound Like Country Songs

Randy Travis: Life is like a country song​Randy Travis' arrest sounded like nothing more than the opening verse to a country song. The singer is drunk, late at night outside a Baptist church, drinking wine out of the bottle. If that doesn't set you up for a redemptive last verse after you've ... More >>

Together Always: Country Duets for Valentine's Day

Maybe it's because I'm a Libra, but I believe that everything in life should be as harmonious as possible-love, especially. Duets might be the ultimate musical testament to such a theory. I'm not talking about the resonance that's created when a woman is vacuuming while her man watches television. I ... More >>

Last Night: Brennen Leigh at Under the Volcano

Austin singer-songwriter Brennen Leigh broke country hard on an initially smallish, talkative crowd at Under the Volcano last night. Opening with "Paint Myself Blue" as a teaser/warmup, she immediately jumped straight into "I Only Drink On Special Occasions" and the crowd was hers. It's one of thos ... More >>

Top 5 Country Music Feuds

The great mullet smackdown of 1992, starring Travis Tritt and Billy Ray Cyrus​Country music singers, Hank Williams Jr. once sang, are a real close family. And like most families, sometimes they don't get along. But unlike rap or British rock, where there are so many feuds it can be hard to ke ... More >>

Odd Pairs: Ten Upcoming Nights of Music Bring Wild Variations

Photo by groovehouseTry to guess who's playing the same night as Toadies.​Diversity is a big deal in H-Town. In fact, our cultural diversity creates such a wide variety of musical styles, it is hard to figure out just what kind of music town we are. In places like Memphis, Nashville, Seattle a ... More >>

It Had To Happen: Lady Gaga Goes Country

PopJustice/billboard.com​Lady Gaga's impending appearance at Toyota Center - two weeks, y'all - has been on the calendar for so long, and sold out for so long, Rocks Off Sr. has practically forgotten about it. We have let most of the Lady's pop tornado whoosh right by us to the willing Rocks O ... More >>

Last Night: Martina McBride At RodeoHouston

Photos by Marco Torres​Martina McBride Reliant Stadium March 9, 2011 Ain't no use in complaining, when you've got a job to do. With SXSW bearing down on us like a freight train and the Rodeo squeezing us like a vise, Aftermath basically wants to kill everyone but our cat right now. Then when ... More >>

Taylor Swift's Ten Best Disses On Speak Now

​Taylor Swift has just released her third, and angriest, album, Speak Now. It's an alternately aggressive and poppy turn for the country girl, who is quickly shedding any previous genre trappings and very much becoming one of the pop industry's biggest stars. She combines female conviction wit ... More >>

"Day of the Dead Rock Stars"

Carlos Hernandez adds a few new twists to his annual Dia de los Muertos exhibit

The Ten Bleakest Songs In Country Music History

decodedstuff.com​Country music isn't all high-tech rednecks and honky tonk badonkadonks. Country artists have a tendency to, every now and then, sing about some dark, disturbing stuff. Sometimes scary, sometimes violent, and sometimes just weird, here are some country songs that rival the blac ... More >>

Game Time: Tiger Woods -- Divorce, It Does A Body Good

Tammy Wynette never addressed the golf angle​Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Oil spills, hurricanes, divorce. Compassionate human beings don't wish any of these things upon their fellow man.That said, we live in a capitalist society. Financial Darwinism, survival of the fittest, wha ... More >>

Taylor Swift, Slapping Away Romantic Defeat At Toyota Center

[Ed. Note: We sent two reviewers to Taylor Swift Tuesday and flipped a coin to determine which to publish first. The next one will be up at 10:30 a.m. Boys.] Photos by Marco Torres​ It's not easy being a teen girl... Aftermath presumes. You are engaged in what feels like romantic combat with male ... More >>

Listology: Gold Sounds' Top 5 Seismic Love Songs for Valentine's Day

​This weekend, starting tonight with a gig at Walter's On Washington and tomorrow afternoon's 3 p.m. in-store set Cactus Music, Houston's Gold Sounds begins properly unfurling long-gestating LP, Seismic Love. It's fitting that the album gets it's proper debut over Valentine's weekend, seeing t ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs That Make Us Feel Like a Natural Woman

​ Despite what Shania Twain may think, feelin' like a woman isn't always about going totally crazy in men's shirts and short skirts. The life of a modern woman is often more about balancing work and social obligations, maybe even with motherhood, while still trying to look good (if you even care a ... More >>

Misery and Gin

Country music, faded stardom, liquor, and age in Crazy Heart.

How Texas and Alabama Match Up... Musically

​ For once, Rocks Off is grateful for this sinus-splitting headache (thanks, Mike Stinson!), because it gives us something to focus on besides the fact that we are crawling out of our skin waiting for kickoff tonight. At this point, sports pundits have analyzed the Longhorns and Crimson Tide to wi ... More >>

Send Lawyers, Guns & Money: Nine Non-Boring Songs About the Work Attorneys Do

Rocks Off's local watering hole is frequented by a lawyer named Eugene Lawley, whom we always refer to as our Walker Percy. Lawley has more than a small literary bent - we hardly ever mention a book he hasn't read - and has a fine ear for song lyrics. His sister wrote themes for television and movi ... More >>

Lone Star Scorecard: All Tanya Tucker Edition

​The history of country music - or any music until recent years, for that matter - is largely represented by men, with female artists popping up more and more frequently as time passed and concert/record promoters realized there was a market for women in the business. In country, you started with ... More >>

MP3 of the Day: Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers

 It seems for every great female country singer, there's a man who has invented a new way to break her heart, be it by leaving or simply not returning her desires. The latter is the case on Miss Leslie's HPMA-nominated "Between the Whiskey and the Wine." This song will make your heart ache. Thi ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: R.I.P. Vern Gosdin

Foreground: Faron Young (leaning on piano), Tammy Wynette (at piano). Back row (l-r): Unidentified man, Hank Thompson, George Jones, Vern Gosdin, Marty Robbins "Don't you think you should've called To tell me you were coming down Oh, you look so out of place On this troubled side of town" - Vern Go ... More >>

Sordid Lives

Web exclusive!

Aftermath: Reba McEntire at RodeoHouston

Photos by Mark C. AustinReba McEntire is the closest modern country will ever get to the artistic heights of its pioneering female vocalists. Sure Tanya Tucker had her run but the booze, powders and Glen Campbell took their toll. Shania Twain was just a Nashville/Pat Benatar Frankenstein proje ... More >>

Me and Mr. Jones

Hickoids

A Review of Sing Me Back Home: Love, Death, and Country Music by Dana Jennings

Miss Leslie: Between the Whiskey and the Wine

Miranda Lambert

Freakwater

Thinking of You...

Lyle Lovett

Sunday, September 18, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, 281-363-3300.

Hellish Houston

A summer selection of the Bayou City's most miserable music and depressing songs

She's Gone (Away from) Country

But Tift Merritt's latest release, Tambourine, is up for Best Country Album

Defending the Dirty Thirty

And coping with Yankee slander

Country Teasers, with NTX+ Electric Deth

Friday, January 23

John Wesley Austin

Thursday, January 9, through Sunday, January 12

Funeral Rights

A Texas family confronts death, homosexuality and repression

Minibill

Albert & Gage

Chalee Tennison

This Woman's Heart (Asylum)

Big Country

Buddy and Julie Miller --

Rotation

Rotation

Hill Country