Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

Bluegrass and Dixieland jazz may, upon first glance, seem rather different from one another, but they do have several common traits, such as a shared love of improvisation. In addition, as their names suggest, both genres grew out of specific regions and remain linked to those regions and their people. These shared characteristics are part [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Del McCoury Band & Preservation Hall Jazz Band – American Legacies"

The tenth time’s the charm for Eric and Leigh Gibson. The brothers–and their talented band–keep outdoing themselves with each successive record. Their latest, Help My Brother, features the best harmonies in the business (sorry, Dailey and Vincent), and they’ve never sounded better together than they do on these dozen tracks. Some of the brothers’ finest [...]

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Banjo player Joe Mullins has bluegrass in the blood. Radio, too–he’s the son of the late disc jockey/fiddler Paul “Moon” Mullins, who was one of the Stanley Brothers’ Clinch Mountain Boys, performed with his son in the Traditional Grass, and spent over four decades as a broadcaster in Southwest Ohio. The younger Mullins, who recently [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers – Hymns From the Hills"

You’d think that Hot Club of Cowtown would have recorded a Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys tribute album earlier in their twelve-year history, considering that they named their band in honor of Wills (and gypsy jazz pioneer Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club of France). Luckily, What Makes Bob Holler is a covers album that’s worth [...]

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Despite his love of namedropping classic country singers—on this record, “ol’ Hank” and George Jones get cited, and of course there was “Johnny Cash,” the 2007 single that had nothing to do with the Man in Black aside from the statement that he will “rock your ass”—Jason Aldean still has more in common with Molly [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party"

There’s a quote from Drew Carey about people who hate their job: “There’s a support group for that. It’s called Everybody, and they meet at the bar.” If that support group has an official soundtrack, it’s probably Whitey Morgan and the 78s’ new, self-titled release, which is chock full of tunes for hard workers and [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Whitey Morgan and the 78′s – Whitey Morgan and the 78′s"

Like Alison Krauss, the clear-voiced Rhonda Vincent is something of a gateway drug into the world of bluegrass. She’ll win you over with a pop-leaning tune like “I’ve Forgotten You” and soon you’re playing air mandolin on her version of “Muleskinner Blues.” New album Taken is a new venture for Vincent. After a decade on [...]

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It’s been a pretty big year or so for Justin Townes Earle. Midnight at the Movies was released to critical acclaim, he was named one of GQ‘s 25 Most Stylish Men, and he moved to New York City. His third full-length album reflects this change in location. Gone are songs like “South Georgia Sugar Babe” [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues"

Ode to analog “Mixtape,” a handclap heavy groove with loving depictions of hand drawn covers and references to Mazzy Star serves as the perfect introduction to Tift Merritt’s newest release See You on the Moon: the whole project feels like, to borrow Merritt’s own lyrics, an “audio love letter” to times gone by. No longer [...]

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When it comes to banjo players, Bill Emerson is one of bluegrass music’s finest. In his fifty-some year career, the former Country Gentleman (he was a founding member) has played with Jimmy Martin, spent two decades with the U.S. Navy’s country/bluegrass band Country Current, and influenced scores of musicians. And when it comes to Washington, [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie – Southern"