From local Houston headlines, we bring you these weekend news bits... • The saga of Riley Ann Sawyers continues. This Chronicle article discusses how Riley's Mom ended up in Texas. • A ten year old fourth grader was cuffed in a school in Cleveland, Tx. • Four teenagers have been arrested in the murder of off-duty Precinct 6 reserve deputy constable Carltrell Lewayne Odom. • Six local firefighters were injured during a fire in......

Before you get all "wait, I was told there wouldn't be any math", there is some significance to the number above. It's Vince Young's QB Rating, largely the result of a 5/13 touchdown/interception ratio. By way of comparison, Matt Schaub has a decent 87.3 rating, and former Steelers phenom Kordell Stewart finished his career with a 70.7 rating. Perhaps the Madden cover jinx doesn't mean that you blow out your knee or get arrested for......

Henry Dittman and Joan (justjoan) are the hosts of the Internet-based travelogue called The Smart Show sponsored by Holiday Inn Express. By now you're probably familiar with the H.I.E. ads that purports to convey savant-like intellect on its patrons. "I'm not a vascular surgeon, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night," says a broke writer after requesting a scalpel from the O.R. nurse. Despite having a title sponsor, The Smart Show does......

When The Woodlands native Hayes Carll first garnered regional press with his 2002 album Flowers and Liquor, we were afraid that he was going to be another local boy trying to sell out to the Nashville country hit-making machine. However, Hayes isn't one to forgo his gift for great songwriting just to have hits on copycat country radio. He has stayed true to himself and his music, and has been compared to the "Bob......

Houston's hometown hero (and shoulda,woulda, coulda been Texan) Vince Young popped up on the NFL wire for being caught in an altercation during yesterday's training camp practice. The build up to the showdown occurred at Baptist Sports Park in Nashville, TN when S Donnie Nickey knocked down WR Joel Filani after the wideout ran the wrong route. Trainers were forced to assist Filani, and on the subsequent play Nickey threw WR Courtney Roby to......

With Harry Potter on the brain, we realized it's been awhile since we strolled into McGonigel'ss for some good ole open mic fun. Every Tuesday night at the Mucky Duck, signers and songwriters fill up the small, cozy Greenway Plaza pub with the sounds of acoustic guitars and tapping feet. Tonights songwriters include Shake Russell, Jed & Kelly, and Mary Cutrufello. From Bar Harbor, Maine to Santa Fe, New Mexico; from Los Angeles, California to......

What's in the cafeteria food at T.H. Rogers? Just a few months ago, the school's eighth grade chess team won big at the National Chess Championship. And now the fifth-graders have followed suit, taking top honors at the same tournament in the K-5 division. The tournament, held in Nashville and sponsored by the U.S. Chess Federation is the largest national chess tournament for children, with a pool of 2100 young chess masters. The T.H. Rogers......

What's that? Surely you're not tired of hearing about where Houston ranks on this last and that list. And this list. And that list. Buck up and listen to this one. Falling just behind Washington DC, Atlanta, and Raleigh-Durham, Houston ranks fourth on Black Enterprise's list of the top cities for African-Americans. The cities were chosen from more than 2,000 user surveys on the magazine's website and the rankings are based on median household income,......

You may remember that last month our fair neighbor Galveston was in the news because of the perceived need to hire a marketing firm to revamp the city's image. North Star Destination Strategies out of Nashville, Tennessee was hired to try and persuade a few more folks to head south to the island. After conducting a few surveys and finding out that most thought of Galveston beaches as dirty, stinky cesspools of sorts, North Star......

Lyle Lovett is definitely one of our hometown musical heroes. The multi-Grammy winner still calls Klein his home and can be spotted around town sometimes with his fiancé (no, not Julia). We, of course, admire him for his music and songwriting. When he first arrived onto the music scene in 1986, country radio embraced him and he had some hits on the country charts. Then, Nashville realized that not only did he write his......

Tuesday A good night for the acoustic-minded. The San Francisco Bay Guardian claims that if you were to combine Iron and Wine with Elliott Smith, you’d get Meric Long / Dodo Bird. Throw in some Wilco-styled vocals in there, and whammo – you have a great band. 8 p.m. at The Proletariat | tickets and info Like any serious, country-leaning singer/songwriter, Robbie Fulks has a bone to pick with Nashville, but it doesn’t consume......

Just when you thought you should move to Dallas Austin because all of your single friends keep telling you how kickass it is, Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation name Houston a top destination for relocating singles in their annual report. In fact, Texas fared well as a whole in the survey (must be our 800+ miles of I-10) with seven metropolitan areas represented. Three cities were in the Top 10: Austin (#2), Houston (#5) and......

Wednesday You can call him Black Francis or Frank Black, it doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that the Pixies leader is playing solo shows again, after a very successful reunion tour with his band over the past two years. We’d love to see Kim Deal as a surprise guest, but we won’t hold our breath. 8 p.m. at the Meridian | tickets and info Bound Stems is a “math rock” band. What is......

The Dixie Chicks' new album Taking the Long Way is appropriately titled, considering the winding route their tour has taken — particularly if you're in Houston. The Chicks have officially announced that they are cancelling a number of tour dates including the stop at the Toyota Center originally scheduled for Sept. 30. Other cities on the tour that have had shows cancelled include Kansas City, Memphis, St. Louis and Knoxville; the band is pushing back......

Tuesday 25 years ago, the English Beat was becoming a pioneer in the British ska/punk movement. The band also spunoff several other more successful bands, including General Public and Fine Young Cannibals. Vocalists Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger team up again, playing such hits as “Save It For Later” and “I Confess.” 9 p.m. at the Meridan | tickets and info Wednesday The man behind Dashboard Confessional, Chris Carrabba, has made the young girls......

Travelers between Houston and New York will have another airline choice later this year: JetBlue, the low-price carrier that boasts leather seats and satellite TV on its planes, will begin service between Hobby and JFK on Sept. 7. Service will begin with three flights a day, the airline said. It's a busy summer for JetBlue, which has plans to add Aruba, Charlotte, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham to its list of cities served between now and......

Houstonist knows what you're thinking. It involves the word "redneck" and possibly something about glittery cowboy hats, line dancing, and lyrics about dead dogs/trucks/relationships. And, dear reader, you may be right. But if you stop looking there, you're bound to miss some of the most original artists on the market today. Not all the women look like Xtina, and you might not want to talk politics with Toby Keith (he's actually a democrat!), but......

Before we get to the week’s picks, those who braved the rain to check out the music at the Westheimer Block Party were surely disappointed. We’ve learned that the event has been rescheduled for May 27th … weather permitting, of course. Tuesday First Dallas Wayne, now we have Austin Collins – why isn’t there a Texas country act representing our great city with their name? (No, Whitney doesn’t count.) Austin is actually Houston-bred, and......

Tuesday Denver’s The Fray is making inroads on radio with “Over My Head (Cable Car),” now No. 13 on the adult rock/pop charts, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to Houston radio (Mix 96.5 has that format but they’re so conservative musically that they probably won’t play it for another month, if ever). Similar to Goo Goo Dolls, but fresher. Cary Brothers (actually a solo guy, no siblings with him) and Matt Kearney......

We focus on the local scene this time – mainly because the national acts are staying away from Houston this week. That’s not necessarily a bad thing : Wednesday Jason Allen’s tale is not much different from other Texas country artists: born in a small East Texas town, grew up listening to Hank Williams, wrote songs in Nashville – got fed-up, moved back to Texas, toured constantly, and is now a Gruene Hall favorite.......

The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has announced the entertainment line-up for this year’s rodeo at Reliant Stadium. Basically, it’s the usual suspects, with something for everyone some people: Traditional Country: George Strait, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn New Country/Nashville crap: Gretchen Wilson, Lonestar Texas Country: Pat Green, Robert Earl Keen, Cory Morrow Black Heritage Day: Maze, Raven Go Tejano Day: Ramon Ayala, Jay Perez Pop/Rock: Sheryl Armstrong Crow, Maroon 5 Kids: Hillary......

Houstonist loves music, and we love sharing good music with you — that right there sounds like a '70s love ballad. We all got together to structure a list of our favorite albums of 2005. After lots of debating and a few bloody noses (OK, OK, Arcade Fire’s album was technically released last year, so we won’t include it — geesh!), we finally settled on our favorite albums of the year, in no particular order:......

We heard a lot of hubbub about the Country Music Association awards show being held in New York City ("New York City?!") last week. Houstonist yawned at that news, knowing that it would be a showcase of corporate-generated pop music out of Nashville disguised as country. Fortunately, we still treasure the more traditional style of country music in our state (usually referred to as Americana), with many musicians from the Houston area that have been......