Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

For a few hours, a concert hall was temporarily transformed into a church, thanks to singer-songwriters Ruthie Foster and Paul Thorn, who brought their “Soul Salvation Tour” to the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia last Wednesday. Thorn won the audience over in the first seconds of his 45 minute set as he said, in a raspy [...]

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Those running short on seasonal cheer in the DC metro area last night would have felt at home at the Birchmere, where Americana husband and wife duo Over the Rhine (Linford Detweiler on piano and guitar and guitarist/lead singer Karin Bergquist, joined by a drummer and a lap steel/harmonica player) played as part of their [...]

Continue reading "Concert Review: Over the Rhine with The Milk Carton Kids at the Birchmere"

If you’re a fan of live music, chances are that you’ve got a list of regrets – acts that you never got to see in concert, and now it’s too late. I’ve got more than a few names on that list, chief of which was Foster and Lloyd. Their debut album was the first cassette [...]

Continue reading "Concert Review: Foster & Lloyd at Eddie’s Attic"

If we’re lucky, we’ll be as hale and hearty at age 88 as Doc Watson is. Joined by longtime partners bassist T. Michael Coleman and David Holt on guitar and banjo, Watson captivated a worshipful, near-capacity Birchmere crowd for two hours on Sunday night with only a 15 minute intermission. His voice was still strong [...]

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Merle Haggard is at an age when most of his contemporaries are enjoying retirement. At 74, the grizzled singer may have lost some hair, but he hasn’t lost his country chops, as he proved Monday night in front of a worshipful crowd that included everyone from little girls in tutus and cowboy boots to guys [...]

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To say that the Bluegrass Underground concert series is held in one of the more unique concert locations is an understatement of magnificent proportions.  Some several miles out of the whopping metropolis of McMinnville, Tennessee—population 13,000 or so—is a bluegrass concert series that is held once a month underground. 333 feet below ground at Cumberland [...]

Continue reading "Concert Review: Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver with Becky Schlegel at the Bluegrass Underground"

Being six months pregnant in the sauna that is a Washington, DC summer—after a transcontinental flight and sleeping in a tour bus bunk—seems, well, pretty miserable. You wouldn’t know it by looking at Kasey Chambers, though. Her Saturday night show at Alexandria, Virgina’s Birchmere was an hour and forty minutes of pure delight thanks to [...]

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I’m not the type of person who travels 2700 miles for a concert. The best part about living in DC is that nearly all genres of music can be found just a short walk or Metro ride away. But on Monday, I found myself flying cross-country to Sacramento for the third annual Golf & Guitars [...]

Continue reading "Golf & Guitars: Great Music for a Great Cause"

D.C. has had a rough week, thanks to a couple feet of snow that brought the normally bustling city to a screeching halt. But what better way to cure a raging case of cabin fever than with the Queen of Rockabilly? Wanda Jackson, that sweet lady with a nasty voice, brought some much needed pep [...]

Continue reading "Queen of Rockabilly Wanda Jackson Rocks D.C.’s Black Cat"

Patrick Huber’s Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South states that many fans and even some historians tend to view country music as the product of the rural South, ignoring the influence of the industrial Piedmont region, which was the textile capital of the world pre-WWII. The Carolina Chocolate Drops have [...]

Continue reading "Carolina Chocolate Drops Bring Raucous Fiddle Tunes to the Birchmere"