Engine 145 - A Roots Music Publication

All of us at Engine 145 were very saddened to hear of the unexpected passing of music journalist Chris Neal. Chris was a knowledgeable, talented writer whose work appeared in a number of places, including the Nashville Scene, M Music & Musicians Magazine (where he was Senior Editor), Country Weekly, and The 9513. Here are [...]

Continue reading "New Music from David Wax Museum and Catherine Irwin in September; Peter Rowan Pays Tribute to Doc Watson; Pistol Annies Start Henhouse Fan Community"

Happy birthday to the Great Smoky Mountains. Back on this date in 1934, these mountains became a national park. John D. Rockefeller contributed several million dollars of his own money to ensure the land was protected and preserved. Nowadays, ten million visitors go through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, making it the most-visited national [...]

Continue reading "Friday Five: The Great Smoky Mountains"

Sad news was posted on Levon Helm’s website by his wife and daughter yesterday afternoon: Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his [...]

Continue reading "Levon Helm in Final Stages of Cancer Battle; Pistol Annies Celebrate Record Store Day with Vinyl; Stream New Waco Brothers & Paul Burch Album"

Stream For the Good Times, the upcoming album from The Little Willies, over at NPR’s music blog. Journey and Rascal Flatts are rumored to be doing a CMT Crossroads together in February. Bluegrass banjo player Shorty Eager passed away. He had played with Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys and several other bluegrass groups. Peter Cooper [...]

Continue reading "Country Album Sales Increase in 2011; New Music From Emily West; Stream The Little Willies’ New Album"

The trail of Ronnie Milsap’s 40 number one hits trail only George Strait and Conway Twitty. Back in the 70’s and early 80’s, the radio dial was filled with dozens of country crossover hits sung by the piano man. Since then, longtime country fans have been transported back to those days each time a Milsap [...]

Continue reading "Album Review: Ronnie Milsap — Country Again"

NPR on the origins of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. And on Jeff Bridges‘ new country record. And on the “new guard” of country music: most of the best-selling artists are neo-traditionalists who seamlessly integrate current styles and attitudes into classic approaches…[t]his new guard isn’t changing country so much as making the genre comfortable with the cultural [...]

Continue reading "The Dirt Drifters Give Away New Album; Hank3 on The Lost Notebooks; Dale Ann Bradley’s Video Shoot"

Proving that he might be the only artist to have more posthumous recordings than Tupac, Johnny Cash has another new album forthcoming with unheard music on it. (Not that I’m complaining one bit.) From the press release: “Johnny Cash Bootleg III: LIVE Around the World is a collection of rare and unreleased live recordings it [...]

Continue reading "New Johnny Cash Album; Free Eric Church Download; Doc Watson Statue Unveiled"

Hello Cruel World, Gretchen Peters’ first solo record in four years, will be released in early 2012. The album features a duet with Rodney Crowell and guest appearances by Kim Richey, Viktor Krauss, and Will Kimbrough. It contains 11 original songs written by Peters, including collaborations with Matraca Berg, Suzy Bogguss, and Tom Russell. Sara [...]

Continue reading "New Gretchen Peters Album; Willie Nelson to Agricultural Hall of Fame; Bucky Covington Accused of Theft"

There are a couple cool folks celebrating a birthday today: Mr. T and country singer/journalist Peter Cooper. Wouldn’t you love to be in attendance at that birthday dinner? I imagine they’d have a lot to say to one another. Anyway, here’s a Friday Five about birthdays, and one song to grow on. 6. “Happy Birthday [...]

Continue reading "Friday Five: Birthday Songs"