Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

Tim Hensley passed away yesterday from liver failure. The 50-year old multi-instrumentalist was in Kenny Chesney’s band for 11 years and Patty Loveless’ band for ten. He released one solo album, Long Monday, in 2008. Alan Jackson, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Tanya Tucker are a few of the musicians who [...]

Continue reading "Tim Hensley Passes Away; Kenny Chesney Starts Fund to Aid Boston Bombing Victims; Dailey & Vincent Cover The Louvin Brothers"

Dozens of classic country, bluegrass, and rock ‘n’ roll songs reference atomic bombs, including “Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb,” “There’s a Power Greater Than Atomic,” Hawkshaw Hawkins’ “When They Found the Atomic Power,” Chris Cerf’s “Fallout Filly,” and, of course, Wanda Jackson’s “Fujiyama Mama,” to name just a few. Here are five more. 5. Red Foley [...]

Continue reading "Friday Five: Atomic Bombs"

Making year-end lists of best books is an exercise at once exciting and frustrating. Listing the best books of the year helps recall fondly those great books that revealed new information about an artist or his or her music or drives you to pick a again a book that you didn’t want to end the [...]

Continue reading "Best Music Books of 2012"

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"

Did Dierks Bentley rip off Jason Isbell’s “In a Razor Town” with “Home,” his most recent single? Isbell accused him of doing so on Twitter this weekend, while Dierks fired back with a link to an interview with one of the co-writers, Dan Wilson, that talks about the creation of “Home.” Emily West will be [...]

Continue reading "Jason Isbell vs. Dierks Bentley; Miranda Lambert to Appear on SVU; New Music Videos"

Joe Gracey, an important figure in the Austin music scene, passed away this week after a battle with cancer. Rosanne Cash performs with the Minnesota Orchestra tonight. Chris Willman wrote a piece (and quoted Blake Boldt) about homosexuality in the country music industry: Whatever stereotypes might exist about country music not being a gay-friendly genre, [...]

Continue reading "Joe Gracey Passes Away; Vince Gill Returns to the Troubadour; Tiny Desk Goat Rodeo"

We’ll be live-blogging the CMA Awards starting at 8pm Eastern. Stop by if you can, and cross your fingers that the server holds up. (If it doesn’t, we’ll head over to Twitter—you don’t have to have a Twitter account to read our tweets.) Jim Lauderdale, Seth Avett, Hillary Scott, and others took home SESAC Nashville [...]

Continue reading "Kathy Mattea on Mountain Stage; Randy Houser Signs with Stoney Creek; New Tom Waits Video"