Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

Ever since commercial country music started up in the 1920s, folks and other people have been arguing about the degree and nature of its regularly alleged and often simply assumed ties to older down home music—the music made by Americans, particularly Southern Americans, on their own porches, in their local saloons, churches, and dances. This issue comes up whenever historians weigh how [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: That Folk Roots/Country Connection—Family Style"

There was some discussion here on Engine 145 last week, sparked by Sam Gazdziak’s comments on the Justin Moore “Bait a Hook” single, and its “dumped and venting guy” lyric that raises—no, presses— the musical question “Is anyone in any way unlike what we three songwriters imagine you wish me, the country singer, to appear [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: Being Really, Really Real Country (Etc.)"

Tom Russell has led a fascinating life. He’s been a cabdriver, a teacher in Nigeria, and, oh yeah, a singer-songwriter whose work has been recorded by Johnny Cash, Nanci Griffith, and many more. His upcoming album, Mesabi (here’s a free download of one of the tracks, called “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”), is filled with [...]

Continue reading "Tom Russell on Country Music"

For a city that’s been referred to as “Guitartown,” even by people who aren’t Steve Earle, Nashville rarely goes out of its way to spotlight music-altering git-pickers. This summer is different. The Country Music Hall of Fame has a new exhibit opening next Friday, August 12th that will run all the way through CMA Music [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: Guitar Legends Who Changed More Than Picking"

It’s a pleasure and, I’m sure, it will be a challenge in the best possible way, to bring this expanded version of whatever perspective my “Scanning the Countryside” column managed to bring to The9513.com here to Engine 145.  The expansion will be twofold: “Roots Watch” will show up twice a month, not just once, allowing [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: Roots, Moves, and Scenes That Sustain"

Today we’ll be looking at the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls of Fire, which my handy Comcast guide describes as a look into the Killer’s “unconventional personal relationships.” Well, I guess that’s a nice way of putting it when a fella is a bigamist by age 17 and marries his teenage cousin just a [...]

Continue reading "Celluloid Country: Great Balls of Fire Less Than Killer"

Payday is probably the best Celluloid Country film to date. Unlike the other CC films, which are generally only nominated for Razzies, Payday was actually up for a Writers Guild of America award for Best Drama. Furthermore, Payday doesn’t feature am actual country musician in the lead role. Coincidence? Probably not. There isn’t actually a [...]

Continue reading "Celluloid Country: Payday is a Satisfying, Violent Tale of a Country Outlaw"

When it comes down to it, America and Australia have quite a bit in common. Okay, one country was founded by Puritans, the other by criminals…but we have similarities in our rugged terrain, hearty pioneer spirit, and the large indigenous populations we’ve spent centuries oppressing. Hooray, former colonies of Britain! If, as music scholar Bill [...]

Continue reading "Doing Time for Patsy Cline is a Wacky Take on Aussie Country"

Patsy Cline has always been a larger than life figure in country music. Bold, brassy, and occasionally raunchy, Patsy (or “The Cline,” as she called herself), fit right into country’s rowdy, male-dominated world, even as Owen Bradley transformed the honky tonk angel into a sultry torch singer. Her rise to stardom and her tragic end [...]

Continue reading "Celluloid Country: Sweet Dreams, Starring Jessica Lange (The Patsy Cline Biopic)"

I love Dolly Parton with a love that borders on idolatry. But Rhinestone (1984) is just plain bad. It’s certainly not 9 to 5, a film I consider to be Parton’s Citizen Kane. It’s not even cheesy fun like Straight Talk, a film which sees Parton—again in the role of hillbilly sage who delivers bits [...]

Continue reading "Celluloid Country: Rhinestone, Starring Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone"