Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

As Zac Brown’s personal new project, Sonia Leigh is doing her best to crack the male-dominated (and blonde female-centric) country music radio landscape. Her brand new radio release, “My Name is Money” just recently cracked the Billboard Top 50 and her first music video has just hit the CMT airwaves. Armed with a gritty Janis [...]

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The Dirt Drifters have recently made headlines with one of the more unique marketing moves Music Row has seen in recent years. The band distributed 30,000 copies of their debut, digital-only album, This Is My Blood, as a way of building their fanbase. The “Give Blood” initiative presented concertgoers with an exclusive: a pair of [...]

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There has always been a fine tradition of the Texas troubadour singer/songwriter who writes songs from the heart and creates vivid, interesting characters and stories. Jeff Talmadge is doing a fine job of carrying on the tradition, joining the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker and Townes Van Zandt. His journey has taken a slightly different [...]

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Talking with Doyle Lawson about bluegrass is a lot like talking with Thomas Jefferson about America’s independence. There is something personal and tangibly real when a music legend is able to talk in the first-person about their own relationships with other music legends of historic proportions. Doyle Lawson can call on his relationships with all [...]

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It might seem odd to say that three-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley is one of the underrated talents in her field. Often overshadowed by Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent, first-rate singers with higher profiles, Bradley is herself a terrific vocal artist who’s able to convey conflicting emotions with passion and [...]

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All music roads, both physical and philosophical, lead to Ray Wylie Hubbard when it comes to the Texas music scene.  A self-described grizzled veteran of the road, Hubbard has been linked musically to everyone from Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphey to the newest batch of Texas upstarts including [...]

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Even if you have never heard Sarah Darling’s music, you will most definitely recognize her. Anyone semi-familiar with the Big & Rich music video “Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy” surely remember the mannequin that shares a back seat of a convertible Cadillac with Big Kenny that shocks everyone by coming “alive” at the end [...]

Continue reading "Angel or Devil, She’s Darling Either Way: An Interview with Sarah Darling"

  If you’re anything like us, you’ve been marking off the days on your calendar until August 23, the release date for Long Line of Heartaches, Connie Smith’s first full album of new material since 1996 (her second since 1978). Smith is a busy lady these days, appearing on husband Marty Stuart’s show, the Opry, [...]

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Plagiarizing a bit from myself in a review of Julie Roberts’ brand new album, Alive: Julie Roberts is throwback. In a modern country world where Jason Aldean raps and acts eschew steel guitar and fiddle for layers of electric guitar, here sits Roberts as a reminder of all of the best parts of country music [...]

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Over the course of the last fifteen years, Mark Wills has had one of those careers proven to be a slow steady success. He has quietly built a catalog that included seven studio albums, 19 charted singles, one live album and a handful of greatest hits compilations. His singles “19 Something” and “Wish You Were [...]

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