Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

Carrie Underwood has donated $1 million to the Red Cross for tornado relief efforts. Paul Thorn has announced that anyone who attends his May 30 concert in Oklahoma and brings items to help aid the relief efforts will receive a free CD. Bill Kirchen talks about his Telecaster in this nifty video. On June 15, [...]

Continue reading "Carrie Underwood Donates $1 Million for Oklahoma Relief; Bill Kirchen Talks Tele; HoF to Salute Bergen White"

Jewly Hight wrote a must-read feature on Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. BJ Thomas and Keb’ Mo’ have a new music video for “Most of All.” On July 23, Omnivore Recordings will release Don Rich’s That Fiddlin’ Man and the all-instrumental The Buckaroos Play Buck and Merle, which is a combination of The Buck Owens [...]

Continue reading "Jim Ed Brown Releases New Single; Miranda Lambert Nominated for O Music Award; Omnivore Recordings to Release Don Rich, Buckaroos Albums"

Producer and Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Langstroth passed away yesterday at the age of 81. Connie Smith, Bobby Bare, and Sleepy Man Banjo Boys are among the artists who’ll be playing Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam on June 5 at the Ryman. See any familiar faces in Pistol Annies’ “Hush Hush” video? [...]

Continue reading "Vince Gill Performs with Boston Pops; Shovels & Rope to Release O’ Be Joyful Deluxe Edition; New Valerie Smith, Black Lillies Videos"

The new Brad Paisley-LL Cool J collaboration, “Accidental Racist,” blew up across the internet yesterday afternoon. Here’s a USA Today interview with Paisley as well (warning: autoplay). Sunday night’s ACM Awards were watched by 15.38 million viewers, the highest ratings these awards have seen since 1998. The Avett Brothers will headline the 2013 Newport Folk Festival. Iris [...]

Continue reading "ACM Awards Post Biggest Ratings Since 1998; Avett Brothers to Headline Newport Folk Festival; Album Releases"

Buck Owens – Honky Tonk Man: Buck Sings Country Classics Thanks in part to his weekly appearances on Hee Haw, Buck Owens was one of the most visible country musicians of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He’d already well established himself by the mid-1960s, and he and The Buckaroos helped to develop the “California sound”—dominated [...]

Continue reading "Album Reviews: Buck Owens — Honky Tonk Man; Don Rich — Sings George Jones"

Jamey Johnson took home Top Album honors and Eric Church’s “Springsteen” was named the No. 1 single in the Nashville Scene Country Music Critics’ Poll. Read the list of results and comments. The Scene also published a feature on Iris DeMent. Precious Bryant passed away at the age of 71. Charley Pride, Asleep at the Wheel, and [...]

Continue reading "Church, Johnson Top Nashville Scene Critics’ Poll; CMT Begins Next Women of Country Campaign; Corb Lund Announces Tour Dates"

Year’s end is all at once “make a list” time, “last chance to bring it up” time and “turn the page” time, so I thought I’d keep all of that in mind this column and point you towards some recent roots and country releases, reissues and re-visits in particular, that strike me as worthy of [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: Looking Forward, Looking Back"

If you were sleeping off a pie binge or waiting in line for the chance to buy a discounted flatscreen, you might have missed the release of Omnivore Recordings’ Black Friday country records, available at independent record stores. The four 10″ EPs, featuring “rarities” recorded by Merle Haggard, Wanda Jackson, George Jones, and Buck Owens, preview [...]

Continue reading "Album Reviews: Omnivore Recordings’ Black Friday Releases"

Listen to a track from the upcoming Townes Van Zandt collection Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions & Demos 1971-1972. Paste has a stream of “Drinking Coke and Eating Ice,” a cut from Drive-By Trucker Mike Cooley’s new solo record, The Fool on Every Corner, which drops December 11. Here’s an hour-long BBC documentary called The Joy [...]

Continue reading "Stream Songs from Van Zandt, Willis & Robison; The Band Perry & Dierks Bentley to Pay Tribute to Johnny Cash; Peter Rowan Goes Old School"

The power of music (and the secondary power of repeatedly talking and teaching a particular narrative about it), are such that for many, the Dust Bowl, some eighty years later, survives in memory mainly or solely as “the horrible experience Woody Guthrie sang about.” (For others, it’s what they saw or read in The Grapes [...]

Continue reading "Roots Watch: There’s More “Dust Bowl Music” Than Woody’s"