As his name implies, Rock Romano is Houston rock and roll royalty. Much like Houston’s overall musical history, Romano has done it all and has not only an abundance of musical talent but a plethora of great stories to tell.
Romano will celebrate his 80th birthday and release of his solo album Seasons Change with a weekend full of events all around the city with each performance featuring many of Romano’s friends from throughout the years. Seasons Change is available for streaming now and will be available for purchase on vinyl throughout the weekend.
The festivities kick off with a huge album release party at Dan Electro’s on Friday, February 14, Romano’s birthday, followed by a special performance at Cactus Music Saturday, February 15 at 3 p.m. The band will inaugurate Lucy Blues in Conroe later that day and conclude the weekend of music and friendship with a performance Sunday night at Green Oaks Tavern.
“To me the party at Dan Electros is like a big bunch of kids putting on a show for the neighborhood,” says Romano who can hardly believe he has gotten this many people involved in his birthday performances and album release.
“I don’t see how I’m gonna fit all these people on stage,” laughs Romano who will reunite his beloved Houston band Dr. Rockit including the Rock In Orbit All-Stars with Eric Demmer, John Del Torro Richardson, Doug Legacy, Dave Carter, Steve Krase and more special guests including Cindy Thrall, one of his Sisters of Mercy.
Maybe it’s the gift of being born on Valentine’s Day but everyone seems to love Romano and it’s no surprise that he’s accumulated such a large bunch of friends to celebrate his milestone birthday and first solo release.
“He’s just an amazing guy. I joke around to people if this guy ran for mayor he’d fucking win in a landslide,” says Krase who has been playing harmonica with Romano for about 20 years and encouraged Romano to put his new songs down and release them on vinyl pressed right here in our city at 610 Record Manufacturing.
Seasons Change is a magnificent album that not only seems to encapsulate all of the influences Romano has absorbed since starting his musical career, but his strengths as a songwriter and storyteller.
The album features tracks with a wide range of genres from blues, soul, jazz, zydeco and rock with a heavy horn section on many tracks. “I’m not trying to become a star now and I just wanted to do the best I could with what I had and some of what I had we had to really work on,” says Romano who has been working on some songs like the title track since 1986.
Romano, who grew up “a poor kid on the Northside” went to Catholic schools and spent his teenage years playing school dances and battle of the bands with his high school buddies in the Jim Askins Combo and other projects.
Romano recalls the nuns requesting the band not play the twist, only leading the boys to do just that until the nuns pulled the plug, of course adding to the thrill of the young rockers.
From playing early rock and roll, Romano went on to evolve with the musical times starting The Baroque Brothers, who served as the house band for Houston’s La Maison Au Go Go, an experience Romano can still smile about.
“Our biggest gig was opening for Jackie Wilson and Solomon Burke playing at the Sam Houston Coliseum. We come out in our little Beatle outfits and stuff and we’re just going to play cover songs and I was ready to be eaten alive by this black audience but they just loved us,” describes Romano.
Romano then moved into a more psychedelic rock direction with Sixpence and later with his band Fun and Games working with big California acts of the time like The Children. Fun and Games went on to have two national hits with their songs “Elephant Candy” and “The Grooviest Girl In The World.”
Throughout this time, Romano would observe and attempt to ask questions in the studio. He recalls asking the engineer at Goldstar Studio excitedly “Are you the engineer?” with the man responding gruffly, “No son, I’m just a knob twister.”
Romano had a strong desire to learn the techniques of recording and engineering in the studio to become a “knob twister” himself and life handed him an opportunity when he was offered the chance to rebuild parts of Andrus Studios and later become the engineer and studio manager.
He recalls with a laugh sitting next to a silent Lou Adler while Romano crawled under the console to secretly call Walter Andrus and ask questions about how to use the equipment while The Children were going wild in the studio.
From there Romano went on to record as chief engineer at Rampart Studio and freelance recording on his own on the road. It was through his work with Rampart Studios that Romano went on to merge with the Anderson Fair crowd bridging his career from psych rock to Montrose songwriters at the time like Guy Clark, Don Sanders and Townes Van Zandt.
In a perfect example of this timeline, Romano describes a smoky caravan following Van Zandt to a Texas music festival when wild man Billy Joe Shaver entered their tent asking for LSD. Romano supplied and a wide eyed Shaver was later taken off stage as he rambled on and on about Jesus instead of singing his songs.
Romano laughs remembering how the next day Shaver returned to the tent looking for “the guy with the acid.” Romano was sure he was in for a pounding but Shaver just asked for more. Romano says that many years later Shaver pointed him out at the Continental Club saying, “The guy with the acid!”
In a continued twist of fate, as Romano continued pursuing his interest in recording and accumulating gear in his living room, the opportunity to acquire more and more equipment from his friend Charlie Bickley whose father owned Buttermilk Records led to Romano opening his own Red Shack Studio in the Heights.
“I had a whole lot of fun at the Red Shack,” says Romano who operated for 30 years there recording with Blue October, Trudy Lynn, Steve Krase, Grady Gaines and the recently departed Horace Grisby.
He closed the Red Shack doors in 2019 as he was forced to relocate. “It was my world, nobody bothered me there, my wife left me alone and it was like it was my little place.”
He now has a small home recording studio he calls “Rock Romano’s Studio” but he no longer takes on outside projects. Though it was here that Romano began the process of exploring the songs on Seasons Change and with the encouragement and support of Krase, can now celebrate the release of his album.
“This is the only thing I’ve done for myself, it feels weird,” says Romano, who hasn’t put out anything on vinyl since Dr. Rockit’s Live, Great Big Fun in 1981.
He began to explore these songs with his friend and collaborator Stan Cutherell who worked with Romano on the songs and along with Krase, encouraged him throughout the entire album making process.
“When somebody dies we all come out with, ‘this guy was great’ well, this motherfucker is alive. This guy is writing great fucking songs, he’s still rocking, he’s got so much soul, he’s just an amazing guy and he truly is a treasure. I honestly believe that everybody loves the guy and there’s a reason for that,” says Krase, who also encouraged Romano to use his vibrant original artwork on the record.
“Turning 50 really freaked me out,” says Romano. “Turning 80, not so much. I feel blessed. How can I still be here? I’m learning to accept my gifts, my talents and skills if you will, and I’m learning to accept the generosity and patronage of my friends and fans.”
Seasons Change is available for streaming now and will be available on vinyl on February 14. Rock Romano will perform on Friday, February 14 at Dan Electros, 1031 E. 24, 8 p.m, $20. Saturday, February 15 at Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth, 3 pm, free. Saturday, February 15 at Lucy’s Blues, 711 Madeley, 7 p.m and Sunday, February 16 at Green Oaks Tavern, 211 E. Main, 6 p.m, $20.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
