Woody Guthrie

Ranchera Music and '50s Ethnic Slurs

The Best Shows In Houston This Week: Rihanna, Suzanna Choffel, Wavves, etc.

Rihanna Toyota Center, April 15 Rihanna has combined her athletic stature, formidable vocals, down-for-whatever attitude and some alarming life choices to become a flashpoint pop star, a lightning rod for controversy that even Lady Gaga would have trouble rivaling these days. Musically, the Barbado ... More >>

What the #?!$ is Hanukkah?: 10 Songs to Help You Figure It Out

It's December now, and the holiday season is rapidly approaching. If you're a Christian, you know the reason for the season is the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus H. Christ. But one thing you may have noticed is that we don't live in a Christian nation, contrary to the beliefs of commentators su ... More >>

4:50 a.m.: The 15 Best Fishing Songs We Could Find

Rocks Off never thought we'd say this, but the country eye candy behind "Pretty Good at Drinkin' Beer," Billy Currington, turned out to be pretty wise. He was smart enough to record the song "Bad Day of Fishin'" anyway, which contains the sage advice "a bad day of fishing beats a good day of anythin ... More >>

Jason Boland & the Stragglers

SXSW: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Rock ACL Live

Bruce Springsteen's Thursday started with a keynote speech in one of the big ballrooms at the Austin Convention Center, and ended with a mythic three-hour set at ACL Live across town, in front of a few thousand people cooing "Bruce". The keynote and the show went hand in hand. If you weren't there ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've only recently discovered that there is a vegetable called "rocket" and it is not nearly as awesome as it sounds. It's supposed to taste like adventure and wonder, not like bitter spinach.We started the week off right with a ... More >>

John Fullbright

Rob $1K from a Bank, Get Four Years; Defraud It of $100K, Get One Year

The hammer comes down, sometimes.​Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. -- Woody Guthrie, "Pretty Boy Floyd" Our advice: Do your bank robbing with the fountain pen. Or its modern equivalent. One ... More >>

Not A Drop Of Rain: 10 Modern-Day Dust Bowl Songs

Barry Sigman​Rocks Off just walked outside and saw something we almost didn't recognize: Rain clouds that look like they might, you know, rain. We'll believe it when we see it. Even if we do get some relief in the next couple of days, it won't be enough. Rocks Off forgets the exact number - w ... More >>

The Storyteller

Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt...Ramblin' Jack Elliott has an anecdote for everyone.

John Mellencamp

Arlo Guthrie

Last Night: Fred Eaglesmith At McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Photos by Jason Wolter​Fred Eaglesmith McGonigel's Mucky Duck February 22, 2011 Rocks Off Sr. wanted to know, and he wanted to know now. "What kinda crowd is this? Canadians?" "Yeah, some, for sure." Aftermath understands these things. Instinctively. It's like drinking good whiskey. "But l ... More >>

Justin Townes Earle's Musical Family Tree

credJustin Townes Earle at Warehouse Live, May 2009​Tonight Justin Townes Earle headlines Fitzgerald's with Caitlin Rose in tow. For the past three years, Earle has been making believers out of most every audience he has come across, either converting the uninitiated or further leading his dev ... More >>

Robbie Fulks

News Flash: It's Not All About The Music

​Music writers are bombarded with deadwood clichés, which usually arrive in gloriously overdone press releases as we go about our day-to-day rat-killing. But out in public or in the comments sections below our blog posts, we often get blandishments like "they're the greatest band ever out of ... More >>

John Fullbright: Woody Guthrie Sells A Lot Of Hamburgers

johnfullbrightmusic.com​John Fullbright, playing a writers-in-the-round with Jess Klein tonight at Anderson Fair, looks like the kid at the grocery store sacking groceries or gathering carts from the parking lot. The innocent look masks an old-soul singer-songwriter and one of the hottest youn ... More >>

"The Wreck Of The Old 97": Country's First Million-Seller

Before the Edmund Fitzgerald went down with all hands, inspiring Gordon Lightfoot's famous ballad, there was another wreck and another song. In 1903, The Southern Railway had a deal with the United States Postal Service for mail delivery. One of the trains involved in the mail haul was The Fast M ... More >>

The Flatlanders: Hills & Valleys

Aftermath: Dave Matthews Band at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Craig HlavatyIt has to be hard keeping a musical thing fresh after almost two decades of road-dogging it, playing shows in excess of three hours at each venue for months at a time, all the while nursing the loss of a founding member and brother-in-arms. But somehow, the Dave Matthews Band ... More >>

Get Lit: The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson

When author and New Yorker journalist Alec Wilkinson first approached folk-music icon Pete Seeger about writing an expansive biography, the modest performer - who turned 90 years old Sunday - demurred. Seeger instead challenged him to pen a tome that "could be read in one sitting." The result, based ... More >>

Songs Not To Play At Intercontinental Airport's New Karaoke Booth

So now there's a karaoke booth at Intercontinental Airport. According to the Houston Chronicle, travelers can choose from "hundreds of titles."We got to wondering this morning about what's in their song selections there and more to the point -- what isn't.We imagine that the management of IAH's kara ... More >>

"The Sounds I See: Photographs of Musicians"

This MFAH exhibit features live shots of popular music's greatest contributors

Tonight: James Jackson Toth and The Dutchess and the Duke at the Mink

Notable tour sponsorships in U.S. history

Take It On the Run

One of Us Must Know

The elusive Bob Dylan is masterfully considered in I'm Not There

I'm Not There

The elusive Bob Dylan, masterfully considered, in I'm Not There

Playbill: Eliza Gilkyson

Primary Season

Check out some of the new candidates for this year's Houston Press Music Awards

Randy Weeks, with Tony Gilkyson and Mike Stinson

4 p.m. Sunday, March 19, in-store at Sig's Lagoon, 3710 Main, 713-533-9525; 7 p.m. show at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999

Freakwater

Thinking of You...

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

Monday, October 10, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk, 713-528-5999.

Son Volt

Okemah and the Melody of Riot

Eliza Gilkyson

Thursday, April 8

Steve Forbert

Saturday, February 21

Nappy Roots

Wooden Leather (Atlantic)

New-World Diva

Mexican-American singer Lila Downs learns to stop asking questions and start living

War on War Songs

Iraq and roll don't go together well when rockers protest

Poetry 101

What Would Woody Do?

Billy Bragg and the Blokes want to know

Bright Eyes, with the Bruces and M. Ward

Thursday, October 3

Folk Art

More than 30 years after opening "Alice's Restaurant," Arlo Guthrie still packs 'em in

Mornings with Woody

Slaid Cleaves "collaborates" with the father of folk music, while blazing his own trail

Birth of a (Fascist) Nation

Butterfly explores the tensions in 1936 Spain via an old teacher and his young pupil

Rotation

Reason to Roam

At 67, Ramblin' Jack Elliott reclaims -- temporarily -- the urge to wander

Sound Check

Folk the Odd, Old Way

Palace makes new songs that sound like they've been around forever

Rounder Rock