Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

Songwriters: Tom Shapiro, Tony Martin and Mark Nesler Josh Turner’s deep, rich baritone voice always lends a dose of gravitas to his songs’ subject matter, whether he’s singing about sin on wheels, romantic rolls in the hay or living room dance parties.Not to say he doesn’t tackle – or mis-tackle – the occasional oddball song [...]

Continue reading "Josh Turner — “Time is Love”"

If you’re looking for a good time, so the song says, just get out of the city and travel far enough into the country until you start to hear banjo music. There, you’ll find yourself at peace in the country and free from stress. Of course, that advice didn’t work so well for the guys [...]

Continue reading "Rascal Flatts — “Banjo”"

It’s fitting that the new single from Shooter Jennings’ upcoming album entitled Family Man (due out March 13) finds him channeling his father with a loose, late ‘70s-flavored country love song. Sung over twangy Telecaster, pedal steel, and the steady thump of a bass drum, the lyrics may lean a bit too hard on the [...]

Continue reading "Shooter Jennings — “The Deed and the Dollar”"

For those who haven’t paid attention to 90210 or One Tree Hill, Jana Kramer is an actress, but she says that her heart has always been in music. Ordinarily, that should raise an immediate red flag, because the music industry gets inundated regularly by actors who want to be singers. For every Jeff Bridges album [...]

Continue reading "Jana Kramer — “Why You Wanna”"

Songwriters: Jay Knowles and Adam Wright After lackluster songs like “It’s Just That Way” and “I Still Like Bologna,” it’s nice to have Alan Jackson paired up with top notch material once more. “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore,” his best single in at least half a decade, finds him willfully shouldering all [...]

Continue reading "Alan Jackson — “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore”"

Songwriters: Rodney Clawson, Jesse Alexander and Jon Randall Those fuzzy hours between the first sip of a strong drink and Sunday morning coming down can sometimes end up a bit troubling. What happened? Was that slurring, shouted karaoke session funny, pathetic or some combination thereof? Could the night be considered one for the record books, [...]

Continue reading "Blake Shelton — “Drink on It”"

Songwriters: Craig Campbell, Jason Matthews and Jim McCormick Craig Campbell seemed to pop out of nowhere with little fanfare or buzz when his debut single “Family Man,” a grounded narrative about blue-collar home life, steadily climbed the country charts into the top 15. The song, off his self-titled album, had that elusive commercial and critical [...]

Continue reading "Craig Campbell — “When I Get It”"

Songwriter: Taylor Swift The sixth single from Speak Now (the fifth one released to country radio) is one the album’s most understated, almost folky by country radio standards, tracks. If previous chart-topper “Sparks Fly” is representative of one of Swift’s slick, sold out arena shoes, then “Ours” is a song for the coffee shop (or [...]

Continue reading "Taylor Swift — “Ours”"

Songwriter: Donna Ulisse Well, it’s the holiday season, which means that, short of moving into an abandoned missile silo, for the next four weeks you won’t be able to escape a near-constant soundtrack of Christmas music. Luckily, bluegrass songbird Donna Ulisse has a new Christmas song that will soothe even the Grinchiest of hearts. “You [...]

Continue reading "Donna Ulisse — “You Cannot Stay Here”"

Songwriters: Chris Stapleton and Al Anderson For those who find comfort in the familiar, George Strait is the romantic ideal. Much has been made of his stunning track record, but the flashy numbers on his scorecard (44 No. 1 singles, 33 platinum albums) are a tribute to a mind-boggling consistency that has nothing to do [...]

Continue reading "George Strait — “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright”"