Robert Earl Keen

Charlie Robison - Plano Courtyard Theater - June 6, 2013

Walking into Plano's Courtyard Theater on Thursday night felt a bit like walking into Addison's WaterTower Theatre or perhaps Dallas' Kalita Humphreys Theater. Among the well-dressed crowd, there were some older folks milling about, chatting in the modern-designed foyer as an air of formality wafted ... More >>

The Eight Best Shows in DFW This Week

Is there such a thing as the end of festival season here? I don't know. What I do know is that there are a couple more this weekend -- Fort Worth Music Festival features twang on Friday and fuzzy guitar bliss on Saturday. And Wildflower remains the most fun I can imagine having in the general proxim ... More >>

How Billy Bob's Remains a Texas Treasure for Die-Hards and Tourists Alike

For anyone whose grown-up in the Metroplex, Billy Bob's Texas is as synonymous with this region as the Dallas Cowboys, Six Flags Over Texas or Reunion Tower are. Since opening in the equally iconic Ft. Worth Stockyards in 1981, the cavernous space has been the go-to spot for Country stars touring th ... More >>

This Week's Top Show Announcements: Divine Fits, Blue Oyster Cult, Ben Folds Five, Rob Zombie and More

As we sit in our cubicles, school chairs or desks today, the Texas sky is relentless with its 73-degree beauty, tempting all of us to turn on some tunes, throw up our hands and have recess. Texas has just reached the perfect time of year when all of the alchemy is correct for hosting a plethora of m ... More >>

The 35 Must-See Bands at 35 Denton

So, this is definitely a top-five weekend in North Texas music annually. We're flush with bands this time of year, what with the mid-size tour Mecca four hours south and four days away. But much of what's going on in the Metroplex in the coming weeks owes at least as much of its awesome to our own d ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts In Dallas This Weekend, February 28-March 3

Home by Hovercraft, Datahowler, Bethan Saturday, March 2, at Dada, $10-$15 Five-piece classical-meets-pop band Home by Hovercraft are finally releasing Are We Chameleons? this week, an album we've been waiting for since the unique operatic group popped up on our radar after announcing they were crea ... More >>

The Five Best DFW Honky-Tonks

To call a place a honky-tonk is almost as nebulous as labeling a place a dive bar. Ask five different people what one is, and you're more than likely to get six different answers. Of course, North Texas has dozens of places that complement any of them. The earliest published mentions of the term h ... More >>

The Best Texas Songs of All Time: #79-60

Best Texas songs, #100-80 The Spotify playlist for songs #79-60 79. Lift to Experience, "Falling From Cloud 9" From one of the best albums of any North Texas act in recent history, "Falling From Cloud 9" is one of the more accessible songs on 2001's The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads. It's probably t ... More >>

Good Friday Thursday: New Year Edition

​Last weekend was a little dead, y'know with Christmas and all, but this weekend is the opposite. In fact, there are so many New Year's Eve events worth checking out that we've got a separate massive list here.The biggest one, though, is easily the Dallas Observer-sponsored Lights All Night festiv ... More >>

B.B. King at Billy Bob's Texas, The Boom Boom Box at La Grange, and More Show Announcements

​It's a far cry from B.B. King's legendary 1968 performance at Fillmore West in San Fransisco, where the story has it that he was booed by black audience members. But, as he's done many times since, King is returning to perform at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth on Saturday, February 25.Tickets fo ... More >>

The K-Ticket Christmas Eve Music Playlist, With a Few Leftovers For the Morning

​If I'm allowed on K-Ticket airwaves for a fourth annual Christmas dance party, I will ask management to carve space enough for a 17-hour set. The list of songs I wanted to play but didn't is much longer than those that actually made the air. Then again, if you really want a copy of Anya Marina's ... More >>

Grimes, Dr. Dog and an Impressive List of Show Announcements

​There are weeks when the show announcements are about as flimsy as a wet persimmon. Fortunately, this is not one of them. For starters, Grimes is coming to town. Her last performance  was a brilliant showing at Gorilla Vs. Bear Fest, in which she wooed the audience with her mix of Madonna's ... More >>

Grant Jones Names His All-Time Top Five Non-Texan Country Artists

Grant Jones​Regular readers of DC9 and regular drinkers at just about any North Texas honky-tonk are likely familiar with Grant Jones & The Pistol Grip Lassos by now. Between celebrating a great victory in the 2009 Shiner Rising Star Contest (where they won a recording contract) and suffering ... More >>

Concert Foul No. 18: Standing at a Seated Show

These things are called "chairs." They're meant for sitting.​It's a rock show reflex: When the curtain goes up and the lights go down, you stand up and prepare to wig out. Fact is, many of the area's best venues make the choice of whether to sit or to stand during the show an easy one. By typicall ... More >>

A Place To Bury Strangers (Free), Portugal. The Man, and The Rest Of This Week's New Shows

A Place To Bury Strangers​The fall season is starting to shape up as expected. The fall and the spring are, after all, the prime touring seasons, and right away, it looks like the Granada Theater's got some pretty impressive bills coming our way.New York noise rock band A Place To Bury Strangers w ... More >>

Dallas Fed Head Attempts to "Separate Fact from Fiction" When It Comes to Texas Jobs

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas​Several Friends of Unfair Park, including a grumpy one below, have asked if we'll make mention of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fisher's speech given in Midland yesterday. Sure, absolutely, happy to. Because, first, I'm ... More >>

Penny Lazo Works For Universal Records and Gets Celebrities To Pose for Pics With Her Taco.

Welcome to Local Music 'Mericans, where we meet the people in the local music scene that you don't see on stages. Penny Lazo. With LMFAO. And a taco. No, the taco isn't real.​Penny Lazo is a DFW-based rep for Universal Records. Despite being very rock 'n' roll in appearance, her main beat is coun ... More >>

Apply To Be the Next Shiner Rising Star; New Grant Jones Song

​For fans of country music here in North Texas, it's hard to imagine hitting the various bars and honky-tonks of our fine area without stumbling upon performances from folks such as Somebody's Darling, The Will Callers or Grant Jones & The Pistol Grip Lassos. Aside from being among the area's ... More >>

Lyle Lovett,John Hiatt

Thursday, June 30, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

Show Announcements: Tobacco, The Adicts, Yelle, The Black Angels, The Submarines, Stone Sour, Katy Perry, The Raveonettes, Joe Pug, Keith Urban, Yes, South by So What? & More!

Tobacco​Less than a year ago, Tobacco, the Pennsylvania-born electronic musician and frontman for the experimental group Black Moth Super Rainbow, released his latest solo album, Manic Meat, a dark and seedy work that outshone its 2008 predecessor, Fucked Up Friends. As a solo artist, Tobacco ... More >>

Tonight, Tonight: Whiskey Folk Ramblers at Renfield's Corner, Organ Yank at Andy's Bar, Dikes of Holland at Rubber Gloves and Hudson Moore at The Aardvark

This particular hump day evening provides some bands with interesting band names that, thankfully, make interesting music.

Tonight, Tonight: Cake at The Palladium Ballroom, 100 Monkeys at The Loft, Hayes Carll at The Granada, Kristy Kruger at The Kessler, Two Tons of Steel at The Glass Cactus, Andrew Tinker at The Belmont and The Ranchero Brothers at Anvil Pub

Quite the hopping Thursday evening we have here. Enough to make a lowly music critic like myself wish he could be in two -- maybe even three -- places at once.

Show Announcements: Lucero, Hellyeah, The O's, Robern Earl Keen, Miranda Lambert, REO Speedwagon, Bob Schneider, Genitorturers, Corrosion Of Conformity & More!

Ben Nichols​Yesterday, we mentioned the first batch of shows listed for the next few months over at Club Dada -- but we still thought that Lucero's performance set for Thursday, February 24, was worth mentioning again. Last time they came through, they didn't really get a fair shake, playing at 1 ... More >>

Listomania: The 15 Best Concerts of 2010

​With apologies to Robert Earl Keen, Devin the Dude, Cake, Hayes Carll and the multitude of also-rans filling up the regional concert calendar in these final weeks of 2010, it's safe to say, I think, that, with Friday night's Wu-Tang show at the Granada Theater, the year in live music effectively ... More >>

Over The Weekend: The Flatlanders at Sons of Hermann Hall

Better than: Seeing the Flatlanders at the Wyly or the Granada, where they've played their last two shows. The ballroom at the Sons of Hermann Hall is their natural element, as dusty and real as the colorful West Texas characters that populate the band's best songs.Will Van Overbeek​The silver-hai ... More >>

Show Announcements: Wu-Tang Clan, Old 97's, Centro-matic, The Queers, Devil Wears Prada, Robert Earl Keen, The Goards, Hinder, Alien Ant Farm and More!

The Wu-Tang Bunch​The biggest show announcement we've had in a while--no, not you, Aaron Neville--is the Wu-Tang Clan's just-announced show at the Granada Theater on Friday, December 10. Although billed as an all-original line-up, there is a certain issue with one Old Dirty Bastard, who passed awa ... More >>

Tonight, Tonight: We Are Scientist at The Loft, Powerman 5000 at Trees and Cory Morrow at The Aardvark. LATE ADD: The Fresh & Onlys and Royal Baths at The Nightmare.

A couple of nice triple-bills, plus some hardcore country, makes for a pleasant Tuesday evening of music, no?

Good Friday: Festival At The Switchyard, Free Energy, Los Campesinos, Dawes, Valient Thorr, The Thermals, AC Slater, Bush, Paul Oakenfold, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and More!

Tim DeLaughter and The Polyphonic Spree perform at Festival At The Switchyard on Friday.​Well, we've finally recovered from our Austin City Limits Music Festival hangover--and just in time, too. This weekend's Festival At The Switchyard in Carrollton is yet another suburban rock fest featuring som ... More >>

Breakfast of Champions: Wednesday Morning Hot Wing Challenge

All photos by Danny FulgencioRudy "the Civilian" Almaguer, who trained for the event with a visit to Plucker's last weekend.​ When we got word that WFAA's Good Morning Texas was looking for suckers contestants to enter a televised wing eating contest, it sounded like the right time to reshuffle th ... More >>

Terri Hendrix, Lloyd Maines

Friday, October 3, at AllGood Cafe

The Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs of Dallas Fed Head Richard Fisher

No Love for Lyle Lovett

Want to get the scoop on Lovett? Too bad.

Ants Marching

The Pied Piper of frattys plays Smirnoff

Patriot Acts

Proof that George Bush doesn't have a monopoly on luvin' the U.S. of A.

Whatever He Is

Hometowner Jack Ingram embraces his newfound Nashville success, even after dropping a dozen Music City F-bombs

Load of Bull

Texas Stampede is rockin', ridin' and rodeo

That's Not Him

When Jack Ingram chose the path of most resistance, he stumbled across himself

Holidaze

Unwrapping our annual roundup of musical season's greetings--and beatings

The Last Laugh

Willis Alan Ramsey's cult keeps growing, 28 years after cutting his first--and final?--record

Letters

Milking it

Terri Hendrix proves you can't keep a girl down on the Farm

The blues and zip-a-dee-doo-dah

Ana Egge picks up her guitar and takes it to the River

Letters

Life is a carnival

The musical midway of Citizen Lane

Young Country repellent

With the Cicadas, Rodney Crowell exits Nashville's cocoon

Out of the past

Slaid Cleaves finally molds his influences into the shape of his own voice

Out Here

Events for the week

Stabbed in the redneck

KNON fixture Roy Ashley bids a fiery farewell

Hank, junior

Wayne Hancock rides shotgun down the Lost Highway