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Dolly, Creed, and ZZ Top: 20 artists that should play RodeoHouston in 2026

It's time for George Strait to return to RodeoHouston.

Photo by D. Foster

Now that the horses are back in the barn, the cows are back on the pasture, and the carnival is heading down the highway, we can start making our picks for RodeoHouston performers in 2026.

The 2025 season was marked by amazing Houston weather from start to finish, the grand debuts of Zach Top and Post Malone, a short and fiery set by Journey, and, oddly enough, no record concert crowds to beat out last year’s Jonas Brothers attendance of more than 75,000. No one cracked 72,000 in 2025, even though a handful came very close.

On Saturday, total attendance on the grounds was 199,220, a new single-day attendance record dating back to 2003. That included the Brooks & Dunn concert, too. Overall, HLSR set a new attendance record in 2025, with more than 2.7 million people through the gates (this month’s excellent weather certainly helped).

The lineup will be released in January 2026, but for now, here are our picks for next season without regard to budget or artist availability. (Editor’s note: Even though Craig went 0 for 10 last year, we think it's fun to contemplate who might be performing next year.)

Dolly Parton
It’s absurd that Parton hasn’t played Houston proper since December 2016 and hasn’t graced the rodeo stage since March 5, 1978. Other big acts on the schedule that year? Johnny Cash with June Carter and Conway Twitty with Loretta Lynn. While Parton still continues to make new music with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, she’s said she’s done touring aside from special shows. Well, RodeoHouston is pretty dang special, we think.

Lainey Wilson
Wilson wowed me in 2024 and turned in the best performance on the schedule. By late 2025 and early 2026, she should also have some new material on tap.

Creed
In 2024, Creed’s alt-rock contemporaries Nickelback attracted a crowd of just over 75,000. This is a no-brainer for the elderly millennials and the Generation Alpha kids who can’t remember how badly we hated Creed throughout most of the 2000s. Come back, Scott Stapp; all is forgiven.

Los Tigres Del Norte
“Go Tejano Day” legends, they pulled in record audiences in 2019 and 2024.

Bun B
The unofficial mayor of Houston’s Black Heritage Day show has become a RodeoHouston institution. Bun is quickly becoming a lock for the Star Trail of Fame. What would he pull out for his fifth straight performance? There’s always Kendrick…

Megan Moroney
I had Moroney on my list for 2025, but she didn’t make the cut. She’s had one of the biggest years of anyone in country music, and this would be another notch in her blue belt. Kenny Chesney can vouch for her, too.

Chris Stapleton
Stapleton’s RodeoHouston appearances are easily some of the most impeccable performances of any season. The only pity is that they are only slightly over an hour long. I could watch him for six hours.

Zach Bryan
Bryan sold out NRG Stadium just last summer, and he’s now a stadium act. With ZB in town, the dive bars in Montrose and Midtown would be on high alert. We could see him posted up at Two Headed Dog, easy.

Sierra Ferrell
I would love to hear “Fox Hunt” coming from that rodeo stage. If you know, you know. She’s guested on some of the biggest albums of the past few years, and she’s beyond ready to stake her claim at RodeoHouston.

Zach Top
Top made quite the impression in 2025 and had one of the year's biggest crowds. There’s nowhere for Top to go but…farther to the top.

Morgan Wallen
Wallen has never played RodeoHouston. He might be too massive for the rodeo at this point, but this would be an easy sellout.

ZZ Top
Billy and Frank haven’t played RodeoHouston since 2017. Sadly, Dusty Hill won’t be with the boys this time around, but his spirit will undoubtedly be dancing in the aisles.

Cody Johnson
Hometown boy Johnson has a sturdy sound made for RodeoHouston. This would be his fifth time on the revolving stage.

Shania Twain
Can RodeoHouston pry Twain away from the Las Vegas strip? She last played RodeoHouston in 1999. That seems prehistoric.

The Red Clay Strays
One of the biggest success stories of the past year would attract a crowd as big as Turnpike Troubadours did in 2023 when they pulled in 74,657 true believers.

Journey
We’ll probably need to make up for the 2025 electrical fire under the stage sometime.

Shaboozey
It was a surprise that RodeoHouston didn’t land Shaboozey in 2025. “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has been the most ubiquitous song throughout the NRG complex this year. I swear I heard it on repeat at the carnival one Friday afternoon.

Teddy Swims
One of the best new voices in pop, a Friday night show from the Atlanta native would kill during spring break. He’d also nail a George Strait cover.

Nate Smith
With nearly 9 million listeners on Spotify — that’s good, right? — he could be an ideal weekday draw.

George Strait
King George’s influence was constant in 2025, with several artists, like Charley Crockett and Post Malone, putting their own spins on his classics. He’s not played NRG Stadium since 2022, so we’re due.

concert rodeohouston

Movie Review

Supergirl fails to take flight in a movie weighed down by grief

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

Last year's Superman reboot brought a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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Dolly, Creed, and ZZ Top: 20 artists that should play RodeoHouston in 2026

Movie Review

Supergirl fails to take flight in a movie weighed down by grief

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