The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is over. Whew! Twenty shows in 20 days! I went to most, but not all of them. Here are my reports, in order that I saw them:

1. Garth Brooks, Opening night - Fantastic. The guy is pure energy. His joy is infectious. And his songs are great. The highlight for me was "Shameless". Still amazed that Billy Joel wrote that, and incredibly amazed it found its way into the hands of Mr. Brooks

2. Little Big Town - Snore. They're a karaoke act, like the Black-Eyed Peas. No one plays anything. The songs are boring. Blech.

3. Blake Shelton - A solid entertainer, I guess. For some reason, I didn't pay much attention to his show. I can't remember any of it. But I don't remember being bummed out by it

4. Alessia Cara - Another one I was there for, but didn't listen to very closely. In my defense, I was working that night. But what I heard, I liked. Her songs seemed like good pop songs.

5. Thomas Rhett - Waaaaaay better than last year's performance. Much better song selection but he still didn't play "Something To Do With My Hands". If he comes back next year, I'm going to meet him and give him the third degree on this. But still, hat's off to a very good show. Much less "bro country" and much more pop. He's moving in the right direction

6. Luke Bryan - I do not like Bro Country and I blame Luke Bryan for the rise of Bro Country. But I will say that he - like Thomas Rhett - has grown up some. His show was actually quite enjoyable and I was very pleasantly surprised. I attend this one under protest but now I'm glad I was there

7. Cody Johnson - A local boy, and a local favorite. He's trying to stand in the boots of George Strait. No one can, of course, but he's not bad. I don't know if he'll ever be a giant star nationwide, but he'll always have a big audience in Texas

8. Zac Brown Band - Best show I've ever seen them do. The musicianship is stellar. Like many of today's country acts, they're actually a rock band. To prove it, they covered Van Halen's "Panama" and nailed it! Fun Zac Brown fact - He came to the steer auction last year and was part of a group that paid $325,000 for the Reserve Grand Champion steer

9. OneRepublic - Things I did not know about OneRepublic: (1) They are from Colorado, not England; (2) They are actually a band who plays their instruments and not a boy band like I thought they were; and (3) One of the five members plays the cello, and only the cello. These guys were OK, but too many of their songs were ballads to suit my taste. I want...no, I NEED to rock!

10. Keith Urban - I got my rock from Keith Urban! I would love to know how he got labelled a country act. He's pure rock and roll. One of the best guitar players of his generation.

11. Chris Stapleton - Last year's Big Thing. He's got some good songs; hell, he's one of the best and most prolific songwriters there is. But I don't dig his solo stuff as much. Pretty much every song relies on flatted thirds for its twang. In fact, I named his band the Flatted Thirds. I just don't think there are enough variations in his work to keep me interested, but he's still an excellent performer

12. Garth Brooks, Closing Night - Another fantastic performance, highlighted by the appearance of his wife Trisha Yearwood for a couple songs. When you see Garth Brooks, you are seeing the best!

HONORABLE MENTION - Brad Paisley. I was at the rodeo the night he performed but the weather was so perfect outside that we went to the Wine Garden before he came onstage, so we missed his show. I've seen him many tims and like him a lot but I thought, "What could he do that I haven't seen a few times before?" Answer - HE PLAYED "PURPLE RAIN". Not all of it, but part of it. I missed it! D'oh!

Apparently, "Purple Rain" is a staple when he plays his song "Last Time for Everything" as it references hearing Prince sing "Purple Rain" for the last time. Here's an example ("Purple Rain" starts at 5:00):




Several years back, Paisley released a duet with Carrie Underwood called "Remind Me". If this song isn't musically an homage to "Purple Rain" then I owe you $1:

The only person I know from that list is Garth Brooks, and I couldn´t even name one song of his.

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Are you just a rodeo enthusiast or have you ever personally participated in a rodeo?

I don´t know much about rodeos but to me, as a layman, it looks very, very dangerous. And yet I never hear about any deaths during rodeos, unlike bullfighting in Spain where you occasionally have accidents and matadors get killed by bulls.

KoolEaze said:

The only person I know from that list is Garth Brooks, and I couldn´t even name one song of his.

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Are you just a rodeo enthusiast or have you ever personally participated in a rodeo?

I don´t know much about rodeos but to me, as a layman, it looks very, very dangerous. And yet I never hear about any deaths during rodeos, unlike bullfighting in Spain where you occasionally have accidents and matadors get killed by bulls.

LOL, if you consider riding in the Grand Entry parade every night as "participating" in the rodeo, then I am a cowboy! But honestly, no - I'm not a rodeo rider. I'm just a member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (the "Show"). As a member of its board of directors, I get to ride a horse at the beginning of each rodeo in a parade on the arena floor, which is what we call the "Grand Entry".

The Show is a charitable organization that puts on the world's largest rodeo each year - 20 nights of rodeo action followed by big-name entertainers. The Show is made up of 33,000 volunteers, of which I am one. I got involved because it's the biggest thing in Houston and I wanted to be a part of something big.

The Show just ended its 20-day run this past Sunday. We drew almost 2,200,000 people over those 20 days. When the dust settles and we figure out how much money we made, we'll give it all away.

Each year we fund scholarships and other educational programs. We'll give away about $26,000,000 this year. Our total giving - which started in 1957, although the Show has been around since 1932 - will surpass $500,000,000 either this year or next. There are about 2,200 students attending college this year on Show scholarships.

My goal is to help us get to $1 billion in total giving by our 100th year, which is only 14 years away.

As for the rodeo, yes some of the events are really dangerous. But more so for the cowboys than the animal athletes (which is what they are). One good thing is that horses and bulls don't like to step on people. It's amazing to see bull riders get thrown and have a bull stomping within inches of their body, and yet they almost never get stepped on.

Rodeoing is a tough sport filled with lots of knee, arm, neck and back injuries but fortunately that's as bad as it gets.

RodeoSchro said:

KoolEaze said:

The only person I know from that list is Garth Brooks, and I couldn´t even name one song of his.

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Are you just a rodeo enthusiast or have you ever personally participated in a rodeo?

I don´t know much about rodeos but to me, as a layman, it looks very, very dangerous. And yet I never hear about any deaths during rodeos, unlike bullfighting in Spain where you occasionally have accidents and matadors get killed by bulls.

LOL, if you consider riding in the Grand Entry parade every night as "participating" in the rodeo, then I am a cowboy! But honestly, no - I'm not a rodeo rider. I'm just a member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (the "Show"). As a member of its board of directors, I get to ride a horse at the beginning of each rodeo in a parade on the arena floor, which is what we call the "Grand Entry".

The Show is a charitable organization that puts on the world's largest rodeo each year - 20 nights of rodeo action followed by big-name entertainers. The Show is made up of 33,000 volunteers, of which I am one. I got involved because it's the biggest thing in Houston and I wanted to be a part of something big.

The Show just ended its 20-day run this past Sunday. We drew almost 2,200,000 people over those 20 days. When the dust settles and we figure out how much money we made, we'll give it all away.

Each year we fund scholarships and other educational programs. We'll give away about $26,000,000 this year. Our total giving - which started in 1957, although the Show has been around since 1932 - will surpass $500,000,000 either this year or next. There are about 2,200 students attending college this year on Show scholarships.

My goal is to help us get to $1 billion in total giving by our 100th year, which is only 14 years away.

As for the rodeo, yes some of the events are really dangerous. But more so for the cowboys than the animal athletes (which is what they are). One good thing is that horses and bulls don't like to step on people. It's amazing to see bull riders get thrown and have a bull stomping within inches of their body, and yet they almost never get stepped on.

Rodeoing is a tough sport filled with lots of knee, arm, neck and back injuries but fortunately that's as bad as it gets.

Thanks for replying. That´s some interesting info because I really thought that there´d be more deaths during a rodeo, and yes, I was mainly referring to dead rodeo riders, not necessarily dead animal (and I like that you consider them athletes as well....because they are).

It´s a miracle that the riders don´t get stomped to death. I thought they´be killed by stomping or horn injuries like in Spain, where you sometimes see matadors get stabbed by a horn.