Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

With Hurricane Irene all finished up from last week’s tear-up of the East Coast, it seemed only fitting to dedicate a Friday Five in her honor. When everything is all said and done, that little meteorological hussy is going to have caused billions of dollars of damage and lost revenues. “Goodnight Irene” is a famous [...]

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5. “Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall” – Tom Russell Here Russell contemplates the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and asks what would happen should “Uncle Sam [send] the illegals” home: “Who’s gonna mow your lawn?/Who’s gonna cook your Mexican food/When your Mexican maid is gone?” Russell sings that he “ain’t got no [...]

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Happy June, everybody. Summer’s in the air and it seems like everywhere you look, flowers are blooming uncontrollably. As it turns out, June’s birth flower is the rose. Thus, that’s the theme for this month’s playlist. There are literally hundreds of songs that fit this topic (more if you count songs about women named Rose, [...]

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Willie Nelson releases albums like most people change their underpants. For the most part, that’s a good thing. He’s had some missteps along the way, but his recent offerings (Willie and the Wheel, American Classic, and Two Men with the Blues) rank as some of the best work in his long and storied career. Produced [...]

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Tomorrow would have been Johnny Russell’s 70th birthday (he passed away in 2001). He was well-known for performing hits like “Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer” and “Catfish John,” but today’s Friday Five features my favorite Russell-penned songs that have been recorded by other artists. Honorable Mention: In a Mansion Stands My Love – [...]

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A lifetime spent listening to music has taught me a lot about Saturday night. It is, for example, all right for fighting or going to the movies, not to mention a good night to simultaneously keep dancing to the rock and roll and work on one’s spelling, and those are just the pop songs. Nobody [...]

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This September, The 9513 is saluting one of our favorite topics: truckin’. We had a list long as Route 66, but after much debate, narrowed it down to 40 artists and 40 songs. Though there is a fair amount of women truck drivers, this list is Y chromosome heavy. You won’t find too many ballads [...]

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Break out the gifts and Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake: tomorrow is Herman Melville’s 190th birthday! Melville may be the bane of anyone who’s ever taken a sophomore English class, but I’m kinda fond of the guy. Unfortunately there are very few country songs about nineteenth century whaling practices, mutiny, South Seas adventure, incest, [...]

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Country music is pretty straightforward: three chords and the truth, as they say. But sometimes, singers have to spell it out for us. Here’s a Friday Five that’s part country music playlist, part spelling bee. 5. “Tulsa” – Wayne Hancock Tulsa is the town for Wayne the Train, so much so that he spells the [...]

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When it comes to songs written about family, it seems Mama gets the lion’s share of the credit. It’s time to show some love to the dads–both good and bad–of country music. Whether it’s unconditional love, a kick in the pants or a valuable life lesson, the dads in these songs are pretty dang awesome…for [...]

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