Why the Texans Should Not Draft a QB First Overall

If you listen to all the "experts" on the NFL, it's a quarterback league. You cannot win it all without an elite quarterback.

If you look at recent history, not so much.

I believe it's all fantasy driven and because the marquee QB's are the ones who put up the best fantasy stats. The reality of the last ten years spells out a different narrative.

Let's take a look, shall we?

The quarterbacks for the Super Bowl winning teams for the past 10 years are:
Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson.

Arguably, the best two quarterbacks of this generation (Brady and P. Manning) have won a combined two Super Bowls in the past ten years. A step below, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees have one each.

The two QB's with multiple championships in the past ten years (Roethlisberger and E. Manning) along with the other two, Flacco and Wilson, are not elite.

But what do every single one of those QB's have in common? Their counterparts on defense were excellent. The old adage that defense wins championships has seemed to fall on deaf ears in the media. It's a quarterback league. We hear that all the time. But look at the last two Super Bowls.

The only "elite" quarterback among the four teams was Peyton Manning. Denver's defense was suspect. The Broncos got blown out.

Does Houston need a QB? Yep. Should they draft one with the first overall pick? Nope. Get one the elite defensive guys to pair with JJ Watt. Seattle and San Francisco have shown you can win with a middling QB if your defense is great. So did the Bears, Ravens and  Buccaneers of years past.

Chicks That Rock: Lizzy Hale, Halestorm

With "Chicks That Rock" we've covered old school with Heart, middle school with Grace Pottter, so now it's time to go new school.

I present Lizzy Hale and Halestorm.  Along with brother Arejay Hale on drums, Joe Hottinger on guitar and Josh Smith on bass, Halestorm's 2nd full length album The Strange Case of..... is probably the most listenable hard rock albums from start to finish since Appetite for Destruction.

It runs the gamut form full throttle rockers like "Freak Like Me" to tender ballads like "Break In". But throughout it all, Lzzy Hale's voice shines.

Interesting Cover Songs: Gabbie Rae and Patrick Kennison

I had a conversation with a friend not too awful long ago regarding cover songs. We fairly well agreed that, with exceptions of course, most covers are not better than the original. Very few are even as good.

That being said, different and interesting covers get my attention. Not that they are better, just different. And interesting.

I stumbled upon 15-year old Gabbie Rae on YouTube doing some very interesting covers along with Patrick Kennison accompanying on guitar and backing vocals.  I don't know much about either other than they make some interesting music together, taking songs of different genres and putting their own spin on them.

Here is a very stripped down acoustic version of Ronnie James Dio's "Rainbow in the Dark":





And here is a cool version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean":


They have also done covers ranging from Iron Maiden to Stevie Nicks to Curtis Mayfield

Chicks That Rock: Grace Potter

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have been around for a decade. But I just recently found them, so I'm a little late to the game.

A bit eclectic in the catalog, but the rockers are there and they so do rock.

And, she's an accomplished guitarist and keyboard player as well.

Enjoy.

The Texas Rangers, Ian Kinsler and Laundry

A lot of people are up in arms over the comments of Ian Kinsler in a recent edition of ESPN the Magazine. He called Rangers general manager a sleazeball and said he hopes the Rangers go 0-162 for the season.

Kinsler later backtracked a bit and said the comments were taken out of context, etc., etc.  Whatever.

There was much consternation over Josh Hamilton's parting comments a couple of years ago saying Arlington was not a baseball town.

Here's the deal. Kinsler and Hamilton are no longer Texas Rangers. They don't wear the laundry of my favorite team.

Baseball is a business. Don't get too attached to the players. In this day and age of free agency, chances are your favorite player is going to change teams. Get over it.

Whatever roving band of bat-wielding mercenaries is currently wearing my favorite team's laundry, that's who I'm rooting for.

We welcomed back a Nelson Cruz after his suspension. No longer wearing the home team's colors? Goodbye and good riddance or good luck, depending on your perspective.

The way things are today, I root for laundry. For better, or for worse, that's the way it is. And it's a lot less messy that way.

Good Stuff Found: Houndmouth

Sometimes you stumble upon things that are good. That's what I did recently with Houndmouth.

Houndmouth is an Americana-type band out of Indiana right across the river from Louisville, KY. Other than that, I don't know much about them besides the fact that they play some good music.

Their debut album is "From the Hills Below" and has quite a few good tunes. Hope you enjoy.

12 (ish) Albums That Have Stayed With Me Over the Years

There's a thing going around on facebook right now, not real widespread from what I can tell, but it goes like this:

What 12 albums have stayed with you throughout the years? Not the best albums, not the most popular albums, but one's that have stuck with you.

I saw this and thought it would be hard to come up with 12 because I like to pick and choose my tracks. Then when I started thinking about the albums, 12 wasn't enough. But I'm gonna play and keep it at 12ish.

In no particular order:

1. "Appetite for Destruction" - Guns 'N Roses
Easy choice here. An iconic album of the times. I first heard Paradise City on a trip to the Metroplex on ZRock. Bought the cassette before I left. Made everyone I knew listen to it. The responses were mostly "Meh." Three or four months later, Sweet Child O' Mine was released as a single. Suddenly everyone owned a copy of Appetite. I can still listen to it in its entirety to this day. One of the few albums that I can.

2. "Operation: Mindcrime" - Queensryche
A concept album in the vein of "The Wall" and  "Tommy". By far the best Queensryche ever produced. "Empire" was more commercially successful, but "Mindcrime" was by far the better album. Saw Queensryche on the Empire headlining tour in which they performed the "Mindcrime" album in its entirety. Great listen from start to finish.

3. "Eagles Live" - Eagles
I really don't think it's fair to include any greatest hits or compilation albums on this list, but with this one, I can't help it. It's just that good.

4. "Moving Pictures" and "Rush" - Rush
This is where the "ish" comes in. When I first heard Tom Sawyer, I had to get the album it was from. It was like nothing I had heard before. So I got "Moving Pictures". It also has Red Barchetta, YYZ and Limelight. How can you go wrong with that?
After hearing that, I immediately delved into Rush, and went back to the beginning, which was the self-titled first album. "Rush" included the iconic song Working Man, which led them to getting signed to a major label.

5. "Bat Out of Hell" - Meatloaf
"I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram on a silver-black phantom bike"
The opening lyric to Bat Out of Hell. How can you not like that? Not necessarily a concept album, it does tell a story. And sonically, it was way ahead of its time.

6. "High 'n' Dry" - Def Leppard
Okay, I could have easily put "Pyromania" here. "Pyromania" is a great album. But "High 'n' Dry" is more raw and has better songs. Lady Strange and Bringin' On the Heartbreak highlight the album.

7. "Skid Row" -Skid Row
The fist Skid Row album is pure unadulterated glam without apologies. And it's fantastic. 18 and Life, Youth Gone Wild, Big Guns, Sweet Little Sister, I Remember You, etc. Good stuff. After the first album, they kind of lost me. But that first one.........sweet.

9. "Pieces of Eight" - Styx
I know, "Paradise Theater" is more popular. But This album rocked. It included the classics like Renegade and Blue Collar Man, but also had the exquisite album tracks Queen of Spades and Great White Hope.

10. "Mean Streak" - Y&T
No, these guys are not Summertime Girls.Yes, that was their biggest hit, but not in all representative of what they were about. Dave Meniketti along with Cinderella's Tom Keifer are probably the best combo lead vocalist/lead guitarist of the generation. Midnight in Tokyo is one of the best songs never heard. The entire album rocks.

11. "Bella Donna" - Stevie Nicks
Stevie was always good in Fleetwood Mac. A lot of people may beat me up for including this one while excluding Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors". I couldn't argue, but this is all Stevie. From the Edge of Seventeen to the duets with Don Henley (Leather and Lace) and Tom Petty (Stop Dragging My Heart Around) this album is a no skip listen.


12. "Faster Pussycat" - Fatster Pussycat
Could be dismissed as 80's L.A. sleaze/glam rock. But really they were much more than that. The songs were actually good and really blues based. They went off the rails in later albums, but the debut from them is still very listenable after all these years. Some of the stuff from the '80's glam rock scene sound dated. This album holds up.

Honorable Mentions
I have ended the list at 12 as per the original stipulations, but there are more I feel deserve mention.

"Allied Forces" - Triumph
"Powerslave" - Iron Maiden
The first two Boston albums

Those are the one's I grew up with that I still listen to. I may next tackle the current albums I'm enthralled with.

Chicks that Rock

Everyday is a different hashtag on twitter and instagram. I get it, but I'm not cool like that. I'm also too old for that crap.

Wednesdays are #wcw. Woman crush Wednesday. (I'm hip enough to at least know what that means.)

Here, I'm going to do women that rock Wednesdays.

For the first one I debated. Would it be the Wilson sisters and Heart? How about Pat Benatar? Maybe Stevie Nicks? Can't go wrong with any of three. But for the inaugural post I'm going with Heart and the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy.

No doubt, not even a discussion, Heart, led by the sisters Wilson, were and are a great band. Ann's voice gets most of the attention, rightly so, but Nancy's guitar work is highly underrated. Nancy, in my opinion, is one of the original "Chicks that Rock".

Here's a little taste of Heart doing Crazy on You live:

My Favorite Band Is Not a Sellout

Never understood it. Never will.

What's that, you ask? Perfectly legitimate question.

Why is it that fans of an artist take it as a personal assault when their favorite underground band/artist makes it big? Never understood it. Never will.

Personally, I take as validation to my taste in music. Finally, everybody else gets it.

And why would you begrudge your favorite band of financial success? You really think their goal was to cater to their 20 original fans forever? Don't think so. They have dreams of world domination.

I remember the first time I heard Guns 'N Roses. Heard "Paradise City" on a radio station on a trip to the "big city". I bought the cassette before I left for home.

I played it for everyone I knew. Their reactions were basically "Meh".

"Sweet Child O Mine" was released as a single about four months later. Suddenly, everyone owned a copy of Appetite for Destruction.

Probably not the best analogy for my point. But you really should be happy when your favorite band makes it big. That only validates your support for them.

The reason I spotlight artists and albums here is because I want them to become more successful. Now, if they become successful and start making crap music, you won't hear anything about them here. But that's on them, not me.

Support your favorite bands/artists and take joy in their success. As long as it's not One Direction.

Southern Rock is Alive and Well: Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers

I grew up in the 80's. I was (and still am) a fan of 80's hard rock. Or glam metal, hair metal, pop metal. Whatever term you want to use. I don't apologize for that.

I also listened to a lot of classic rock. Zeppelin, Aerosmith, the Who, Hendrix, ZZ Top, Heart, etc., etc. Also included in classic rock was what was known as Southern Rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet, etc.

I thought Southern Rock was a thing of the past, only to be heard on classic rock stations. Wow, was I wrong.

There are a lot of artists that people tout as Southern Rock. But really, right now, there are two that are head and shoulders above everyone else and the only ones that I really consider Southern Rock.

Blackberry Smoke and Whiskey Myers.

One is considered a rock band, the other a country band. Which I find quite amusing. But that's a conversation for another time.

In the mean time, here are a couple of tunes to enjoy.

Blackberry Smoke:

Whiskey Myers