It's Brodeo Time! RodeoHouston Announces Jonas Brothers, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and Brooks & Dunn for 2010
| Daniel Kramer |
| The Jonas Brothers at RodeoHouston 2009 |
| Daniel Kramer |
| The Jonas Brothers at RodeoHouston 2009 |
| Photos courtesy Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo |
Swift seemed genuinely elated to be at the rodeo for the first time, which came through in her energetic performance. Not only did she pack the house, but she also kept the crowd going, a hard task in a venue where the audience is hundreds of feet away.
Swift opened strong with "You Belong to Me," but it was after a blink of eye wardrobe change from a plain black and jeans into a sparkling gold minidress and went into "Our Song" that she really caught fire and got the crowd up and swaying.
Aftermath can not begin to tell you how much of a beacon ZZ Top was for him over the past few days. The lil' ol' band from Texas' RodeoHouston finale may not have had anything to do with SXSW per se, but knowing the first thing he would be doing upon returning to Houston was heading down to Reliant Park to watch the Bearded Ones and the Beardless One Named Beard kept him going. And sure enough, nothing in Austin last week could compare to watching ZZ do its thang in front of more than 64,000 screaming hometown fans.
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Mark. C. Austin/ Click here for a slideshow
Conquering Reliant Stadium's cavernous acoustics - actually, the mix made songs like "Jesus Just Left Chicago," "Just Got Paid" and "Cheap Sunglasses" sound extra Mississippi muddy - the trio tossed in twangy covers of Johnny Cash's "Get Rhythm" and Hank Snow's "I'm Movin On" before closing out with the patented power-boogie of "La Grange" and "Tush." After half a week of hipster hell, it sure was nice to be back in the land of turkey legs and funnel cakes.
Not only does Clint Black know how to play to the home folks - after being introduced by his daughter Lily, he said hello to Tomball, Spring, Pasadena and his hometown Katy (but where, Aftermath would like to know, was Friendswood?) upon taking the RodeoHouston stage Friday night - but he was responsible for what has to go down as hands down the oddest moment in this year's concert series, if not ever. Unless ZZ Top decides to do something like cover Flo Rida's "Right Round," Aftermath supposes, but that seems unlikely.
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Photos courtesy Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo
Near the end of his hour-long set, Black, still playing to the crowd, said something to the effect of "we listened to a lot of great country music growing up here, but we listened to a lot of great rock and roll, too." Then he yielded center stage to saxophonist Brian Austin and climbed behind the drums for a cover of Steely Dan's 1978 FM radio hit "Josie." Hearing any country star's band suddenly launch into Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's MOR mover about a wanton woman who "prays like a Roman" would be weird - Austin's smoove-as-glass blowing did the original justice, though, and Black proved to be a decent if not spectacular timekeeper - but the the distinct whiff of manure in Reliant Stadium (the grand champion steers were chosen immediately before Black's performance) made it extra surreal.
| Photos by Craig Hlavaty |
This has been a fun week down in the Rocks Off foxhole, as Toby Keith's loyal minions have besieged us with comments taking issue with our review of the Big Dog Daddy's lackluster RodeoHouston performance Wednesday. (Come on, guys, we did say the guitar work on "Stranglehold" was pretty badass.) They even enlisted the flacks at CMT to help assail our defenses.
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TK's atomic mullet is no match for Rocks Off and Saving Country Music's poison pens.
Now, like the cavalry in some John Ford Western Keith probably wishes he could remake, the Saving Country Music blog has come to our aid. "Luckily, the forces of REAL country music have found an ally down there in the form of the Houston Press," SCM posted today. Be sure to check out their "It Hurts When I Pee" podcast while you're there, too.
| Photos by Mark C. Austin |
If you've been following Rocks Off's rodeo coverage, which hopefully you have, you've probably noticed that we've found a few of the entertainers' performances to be less than stellar. Which is not to say we haven't been having a blast down at Reliant Park with thousands of our friends and neighbors.
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Mark C. Austin
Yes, CMT, we did enjoy Alan Jackson's RodeoHouston performance.
CMT has certainly noticed and, um, "called us out" on it a few hours ago. According to CMT blogger Craig Shelburne:
"The bloggers for the Houston Press haven't been all that impressed with the country concerts at this year's RodeoHouston. You know, I certainly haven't liked all the concerts I've written about either. In my opinion, some of them were truly awful. When that happens, I just mostly describe what happened, rather than taking cheap shots at the artist."
Turns out Solange Knowles had a pretty legit reason for being off her game at last Friday's rodeo concert: While she and her band were en route from Austin, their tour bus plowed headlong into a colony of deer. Solange is one of the most prolific Twittering musicians out there - 24,000 followers, 1,760 updates - and last night she used the microblog to relay her account of what happened:
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Courtesy Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
"I'm on the phone baking like betty in my bus bunk and CRASH! Thought I was dead, but turns out we ran into a family of dear:( ... I can't believe it. Were all ok tho! Guitar player flew out of bunk n hurt his hand a little:( ... Really sad for the deer. One didn't make it:( ... Craziest thing is when your in your bunk , you have no access 2 windows so it really scared me.I just felt bam!"
Besides emoticons and "baking like betty" - something tells Rocks Off she ain't talking about making muffins there - Solange is also a big fan of Chairlift, so look for her in the audience at one of the Brooklyn indie/electro-poppers' SXSW appearances.
It's easy to see why Toby Keith is so popular... until he opens his mouth to sing. The 47-year-old singer, actor and tireless Ford pitchman has the kind of easygoing, big-galoot charisma that would make him an ideal drinking buddy. No doubt that's why so many of his songs, which are generally sarcastic without being mean and avoid profundity at all costs, concern bars and the types of refreshements served therein.
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Photos by Mark C. Austin
But OMG, Keith probably couldn't pass the audition for your average high school senior musical. Tuesday night at the rodeo, his voice - which has almost no range to start with - was consistently flat, with wrong notes littered across songs like "I Wanna Talk About Me" and recent country No. 1 "She Never Cried In Front of Me" like beer cans on the floor of his extended-cab F-150 after a weekend at the lake.
| Photos courtesy Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo |
| Photos courtesy Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo |
| Photos by Mark C. Austin |
Alan Jackson is like the world's most comfortable pair of boots. Over the past 20 years, the Georgia-born singer and songwriter has amassed an enormous catalog of songs loaded with self-deprecating modesty, gentle tongue-in-cheek humor and unabashed sentimentality, that every so often - whether happy-hour Jimmy Buffett duet "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" or Grammy-winning 9/11 rememberance "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" - resonate on a much deeper level.
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Photos by Mark C. Austin/ Click here for a slideshow
Tuesday night, playing his 17th Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo in 18 years (skipping only 2003), Jackson played a 45-minute set that was long on hits and short on frills - unless you count the video-screen footage of family photos during "Drive (For Daddy Gene)," Buffett in concert in "Five O'Clock" and Longhorn and Aggie caps for closer "Where I Come From" - with only a few missteps. One was opener "Good Time," a genial shuffle that nonetheless felt a little forced, like Jackson was trying a little too hard to lift the crowd's spirits - which, considering the rest of the set, was totally unnecessary.
Monday afternoon, Rocks Off headed down to Reliant Park to participate in the annual Reliant Rodeo Round-Up, a competition between local media "personalities" - Rocks Off supposes that's an appropriate term, though some who know him might claim otherwise - and their partners from area nonprofit agencies to raise money for charity.
Rocks Off's partner was HISD's Dee Puls, our charity was the fine arts and music program at Kashmere High School and our objective was to avenge our result in last year's Round-Up, when we finished dead last. We started strong, but Rocks Off choked in the final event, roping a "calf" that was actually a sawhorse with a head stuck on it. (Like many things, it turns out left-handers are at a natural disadvantage when it comes to tossing a lasso.)
| Photos by Mark C. Austin |
Strange bookings like this make life coalesce into a majestic ball of awesome in red leather jeans. So get out your headbands, tease out that perm and shake it, all you "Hot Girls In Love"! It's our official stance that any band approved by Carl Brutananadilewski is fine by us.