A Perfect Fit

In RodeoHouston debut, Kid Rock makes himself right at home

Performers like Alan Jackson and George Strait were born to be on the RodeoHouston stage. Others like Bob Dylan and Janet Jackson may have sounded like a Rodeo reach, but end up pulling off the gig nicely.

And every once in a great while there is an artist who is so perfect for the rodeo stage the only question to ask when it's over is, "Why did it take so long to get these two together?"

Ladies and gentleman of the rodeo, meet Kid Rock... your future.

For one hour and 10 songs to kick off spring break, the Detroit-area rapper-turned-rocker who has dabbled more and more in country in recent years, pulled off the near-impossible at Reliant Stadium. This American Bad Ass made a Monday night at the rodeo ignite with energy normally reserved for weekends.

"I know it's Monday night, but we're gonna turn it into Saturday night," said Mr. Rock as fire canisters exploded and electric guitars, courtesy of his backing Twisted Brown Trucker Band, led him into the blues stomp of new song, "God Bless Saturday," from his latest album, Born Free.

Over the last 13 years fans have watched Kid Rock evolve from pot-smoking, early morning stoned pimp to a Bob Seger-Lynryrd Skynyrd motivated devil without a cause and finally a man who can duet on a balled with Sheryl Crow and date Pamela Anderson simultaneously without making either seem phony. At the rodeo he condensed this metamorphosis down to a handful of songs. And he did it effortlessly.

Appearing in black and gold western wear to open the show, Kid Rock went to work on the buckle n' boot crowd with his 1999 Top 10 hit, "Cowboy" (as if there would be any other opener), with a cover of Waylon Jennings, "Good Ol' Boys" (aka the theme song from "The Dukes of Hazzard") mixed in for good measure.

After that it was love at first sight and the Monday night party was on.

Kid Rock immediately set the gears on his music genre-shifting machine in motion. Stripping down to a T-shirt and his signature pimp fedora, he made a soulful run through an unexpected selection of "Lowlife (Living The Highlife)" from 2007's Rock n Roll Jesus. A quick nod to The Georgia Satellites "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" at the end of the song was just more fuel for the spring break party fire.

Kid Rock is not just just a chameleon when it comes to music styles. He also like to mix up how he plays it. He sat behind a piano and let a talented, soulful back-up singer take vocals for "Care" (originally sung with Mary J. Blige on Born Free) before going semi-acoustic for a sit-down duet with another female band member for past country-crossover hit, "Picture" (a hit with Sheryl Crow nearly a decade ago).

Last week, Janet Jackson made no mention of her last performance at Reliant Stadium: The famed Super Bowl XXXVIII "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004. Kid Rock playfully reminded the crowd he also performed at that Super Bowl, though, after seeing Ms. Jackson's bosom few remember it.

For the final push he played nearly every instrument on stage, including a bad ass ZZ Top lick on electric guitar for signature party anthem "Badwitdaba" and then paid appropriate homage to the occasion by standing solemnly while a saxophone player brought the crowd to attention with a sterling solo of "The Star Spangled Banner" that led into new heartland anthem, "Born Free."

And when it was down, the standing and screaming crowd at Reliant Stadium begged for something rare at the rodeo: an encore. They didn't get it, but by keeping the show just between the lines of clean, but dangerous, he should have a standing invitation to RodeoHouston for years to come.

In hindsight, it's a natural pairing that should have happened long ago. I'm often critical of the choosing of acts at the rodeo, but I give the RodeoHouston bookers high praise for nailing this one.

unspecified series568663988

Art on the Prairie

The roots of Lone Star art: William Reaves unearths the Texas modernistlandscape

Richard Stout, "Evenings Fall," 1967
David Adickes, "Three Men on a Beach," 1953
Jack Boynton, "Inland Lights," 1956
Emma Richardson Cherry, "Southern Morning," c. 1930

This month's editorial series, True Grit: Houston Style, has sought to answer to what extent Houston embraces its Texas roots. To investigate how Houston artists have come to terms with their state's landscape, we went to William Reaves Fine Art, a gallery whose mission is to define modernism in Texas.

"We opened the gallery to convey a story about the evolution of modernism in our state," says the gallery's owner, William Reaves. He pinpoints Houston as the "birthplace" of Texas modernism for the community's willingness to display abstract works in museums and support award-winning artists as early as the 1930s. Artist-teachers like Emma Richardson Cherry and Ella McNeil Davidson had means to travel internationally and cultivated a generation of informed local artists like Robert Preusser and Frank Dolejska in the 1920s and '30s via institutions like the Art League and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Reaves notes that much ink has been spilt chronicling the first half of the 20th century in Texas art, but it was not until after World War II that the region received the necessary influx of knowledgeable artists to create an enduring community. Several local artists who stayed in Europe after the war brought back global influences. Paris was briefly home to a creative Texan expat culture, inculcating such minds as Herb Meers and David Adickes, who studied under the lionized Cubist painter Fernand Léger.

"This sort of French-looking, Texas cubist school that they created when they returned was very different from the bluebonnets people were used to seeing," says Reaves.

As the 1950s progressed, Houston became a "hotbed" for non-representational art, led by figures like Jack Boynton and Richard Stout (whose work from the era will be on view in an exhibition opening Friday). "A lot of this stuff from the '50s is new again because it's been kind of squirreled away in closets for awhile," says Reaves. "It comes off as fresh because there's a kinship with contemporary artists."

No doubt that international currents increasingly flowed into the local art mix, but did Houston artists ever completely turn their back on the Texas landscape?

"My impression is that it's a blend," says the gallery owner, citing Richard Stout as an example of an artist who has studied under other masters and blended that style with an impression of the state. Explains Reaves,

He paints in an expressionist style and has been informed by a lot of different artists over time. In addition, he was an art professor at UH for 25 years, so he's very aware of what's going on internationally. But Richard is also from Beaumont and his work almost always sees a landscape influence — a lot of coastal plains and rich atmosphere. Yet it is painted in a way that is informed by a lot of important artists from the New York School."

Similarly, Boynton and McKie Trotter presented work at New York galleries, yet their respective reductive landscapes and abstract expressionist works evince a horizon line evocative of the wide skies and flatness of Texas.

In truth, the link between Houston artists and their Texas roots is not a black-and-white issue. But to some extent, the answer is embedded in the cadre of works on view at William Reaves Fine Art. More than simply display and distribute artworks, the gallery presents curated thematic exhibitions that are accompanied by robust physical and online catalogues derived from research conducted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Hirsch Library.

"The gestalt of what we're trying to do," says Reaves, "is trace a history of Texas art that may have been overlooked, but at its zenith, there's this beautiful, vital modernism."

The exhibitions Lone Star Modernism: A Celebration of Mid-Century Texas Art and Richard Stout: The Early Years open Friday, with a reception April 9, 5 - 8 p.m. A gallery talk will be held April 30 from 2 - 4 p.m. Both exhibitions are on view through May 7.

unspecified series568663988