Riley Green review

Country singer Riley Green kicks off RodeoHouston with Toby Keith tribute

Looking like a member of the Dutton clan that grew tired of the ranching business and got really into Toby Keith and duck hunting, Riley Green opened the 2026 edition of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Monday, March 2 in front of 59,250 attendees.

The Alabama native and former college football quarterback — because of course he was — strikes a starched jeans balance between the tender, woo-pitchin’ of guys like Merle Haggard and George Jones and the deep, blinding romance of neo-traditionalists Tracy Lawrence and fellow 2026 RodeoHouston performer Tim McGraw, with a cowboy hat resting over his epic flow.

Speaking of the Taylor Sheridan Television Universe (the TSTU), Green will soon be seen on the Sheridan-produced Yellowstone spin-off series Marshals, which premiered on CBS this past weekend, as a troubled former Navy SEAL.

The ACM New Male Artist of the Year for 2020, the 37-year-old didn’t get around to playing RodeoHouston until just last year. When Green isn’t in a recording studio, performing onstage, starting a duck hunting brand, or conspicuously vacationing with his shirt off in a tropical climate near other young country stars, he retreats to his farm or deep into a far-flung swamp on a hunting excursion. That being said, if I ever start a country punk band, I’m going to call it Riley Green’s Forearms, because they seem to attract audiences as much as his music.

Green’s show kicked off just after 9:20 pm with the man himself blowing into a duck call and launching into “Different ‘Round Here,” luckily out of earshot of any ducklings NRG Center potentially bedding down for the night.

“Hell Of A Way To Go” came with a mid-song disclaimer that it was his grandfather who was a fan of Alabama football, lest any alumni in the crowd get things twisted, before switching it to up Texas.

Green honored his mentor, Jamey Johnson, with a widescreen cover of the woolly singer-songwriter’s timeless “In Color”. Green’s earliest work was heavily influenced by Johnson, and the pair have become lasting friends.

He and fellow country star Ella Langley have become inexorably linked since their 2024 chart-topping duet "You Look Like You Love Me” like a nu-country Conway and Loretta. Sadly, there was no convertible riding out onto the rodeo dirt with Langley riding shotgun to jump into the duet, but the female audience members filled in admirably in her stead. "There Was This Girl," his gold-certified debut single, followed it up.

The late Toby Keith got some shine with a medley of his hits, including Green taking a turn at Keith’s 2002 anthem "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue," which has earned something of a resurgence due to the USA hockey team singing it at the Winter Olympics.

Green slowed things down and took a break on a stool for “Jesus Saves” and “Don’t Mind If I Do,” showing off his solo acoustic chops.

The smoldering bedroom romp “Worst Way” got the biggest squeals of the night, with tall boys hoisted over cowboy hats, while his 2019 hit, "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" — the triple-platinum tribute to his late grandfathers, Lendon Bonds and Buford Green — brought the waterworks and a sea of smartphone flashlights through the stadium.

Green made his way out of the building with his band’s take on Alabama’s “Dixieland Delight,” jumping into a Ford pickup and into a few thousand fans’ dreams.

Setlist

Different ‘Round Here
Change My Mind
Hell of a Way To Go
In Color (Jamey Johnson cover)
You Look Like You Love Me
There Was This Girl
Toby Keith Tribute Set

I Should’ve Been A Cowboy
Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue

Jesus Saves
Don’t Mind If I Do
Worst Way
I Wish Grandpas Never Died
Bury Me in Dixie / Dixieland Delight

Courtesy of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Country singer Riley Green opened RodeoHouston on Monday, March 2.

rodeohouston concert review

Movie Review

Jessica Chastain gets in a tangled love story in new drama Dreams

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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