Honest Abe Log Homes, a leading manufacture of log cabins throughout the United States, recently forged a unique and active marketing relationship with Mountain Heart, a well established progressive roots/alt-bluegrass band. As Honest Abe lead a search for talent to appear in a series of new commercials, Mountain Heart leaped from the pool of talent surrounding Nashville, Tennessee and became an obvious choice to partner with. This pairing is a new approach for each organization as they partner to market and expand their target demographics.

On any given night in Nashville, it's not exactly a challenge to track down quality musical entertainment, but one would certainly be hard-pressed to find a more eclectic -- and exciting -- lineup than those at Music City Roots. And on Wednesday, June 16, a standing- (and sweating-)room-only crowd witnessed, and participated in, the most enthusiastically received performance in the weekly show's history thus far.

Loveless Café, home of the best southern biscuits and friend chicken in the south, has now morphed into Loveless Barn, home of some of the best music in the south. The new Nashville music venue is home to Music City Roots, where every Wednesday some of the best in bluegrass, Americana and country meet jazz, swing and the blues.

I long for the day when Nashville moves out of the umbrella of country music, and is recognized for its eclecticism. WSM’s Music City Roots might just be the venue that makes this dream a reality. Nashville will always look to country music as it’s saving grace. It is in our blood, and we will defend it with great tenacity. However, people seem to be experiencing tunnel vision. They don’t know that country music has been and is still inspired by the likes of Gospel, Bluegrass, Americana, and Rock music.  Music City Roots is providing an education, if you will, to people that are exploring artists that are still keeping the backbone of American music alive. I had the great privilege of seeing this show last night, and let me tell you, the amazing talent that they are able to pack into 2-2.5 hours is staggering.

Even in a scene slowly flooding with string bands that play with punk-rock fervor, Split Lip Rayfield stand out. For one, their origins go back further than most, to the mid-'90s when the Wichita, Kan., act formed out of Bloodshot Records metal-country act Scroat Belly. The other big difference is the musical backbone of bassist Jeff Eaton, who plays a one-string gut-bucket bass constructed out of a '78 Mercury Marquis gas tank and a weed-whacker line with an upright bass pickup system for amplification. You can bet it's plenty loud, a sensation augmented by the ferocity of their playing.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – January 21,2010 - "Music City Roots: Live From The Loveless Cafe,"  airing on flagship legend WSM 650-AM, is proud to host an appearance by 70-year-old Japanese Country singer, Tomi Fujiyama, as she returns to Nashville to put the finishing touches on an independent documentary film called “Made in Japan”.

The exemplary new Music City Roots series at Loveless Barn repeatedly reveals how American traditional music continues to grow in many different directions. Fittingly, then, this week’s program features masterful acoustic musician Tim O’Brien, who at times has seemed to try to embrace every kind of folk music that exists. Live, he’ll sweep from bluegrass to Celtic to a focus on lyrical ideas common to singer-songwriters.

There’s this show that Eddie Stubbs hosts and WSM broadcasts live each week, different from the one that’s gone on for decades in a big theatre cast as a barn. This show has only been around for a month—in a barn behind the Loveless Café, no less—and its lineup each Wednesday is all-Americana (it’s not Little Jimmy Dickens’ scene).