Love & Circumstance

BIG LOVE, BIG TOUR, BIG VIDEO, BIG COVER, AND BIG RADIO SHOW = BIG NEWS!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:40:00 +0000

The new album, Love & Circumstance is in stores now (via Ninth Street Opus). Love & Circumstance was produced by Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, Loudon Wainwright III, etc) and is a great collection of songs wriiten by the likes of John Hiatt/Ry Cooder/Nick Lowe/Jim Keltner (aka Little Village), Buddy & Julie Miller, David Rodriguez (her Dad), M. Ward, Lucinda Williams; Richard Thompson, Sandrine, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings; Bonnie Owens & Merle Haggard, Townes van Zandt, Hank Williams, & Sosa Tomas Mendez (a song her Great Aunt, Ava Garza sang). It was recorded with her world-class touring band: Hans Holzen (guitars), Kyle Kegerreis (bass), and Eric Platz (drums). Special guests joining in on the recording include Bill Frisell, Buddy Miller, Greg Leisz, and Aoife O'Donovan. The first single/video is "Big Love".

The Love & Circumstance Tour is officially underway across the Atlantic with The Take Root Festival, club shows in the UK, a Theater tour in Holland & a radio show in Germany!

Live & Circumstance Radio Special

"Live & Circumstance" - A Carrie Rodriguez Radio Special hosted by Alejandro Escovedo is being prepared for release to radio. In addition to the conversation/interview, it will feature live performances from her record release show in NYC at Joe's Pub in April and from her performance in May at The Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. As of this writing over 131 stations in the US have committed to airing it!

A beautiful video was shot for "Big Love" in June is now up on Carrie's YouTube channel HERE . There's also a cool live in-studio video for "Steal Your Love" recorded at WFUV on Carrie's YouTube page as well.

On September 27th, Love & Circumstance was released in Holland via Ninth Street Opus/Munich. Just in time for her tour of small theaters there!

On September 28th, Los Lonely Boys released their new album, "Acoustic Live: Keep On Giving" recorded during The Acoustic Brotherhood Tour in February. Carrie Rodriguez and Alejandro Escovedo are very special guests on two songs, "Heaven" and "Beast Of Burden". Listen to the "Beast of Burden" stream here: http://tinyurl.com/272mw5r .

Carrie Rodriguez - Big Love

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:46:00 +0000

Concert review: John Prine | Burger with Relish: Music | The Salt Lake Tribune

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:19:00 +0000

Concert review: John Prine | Burger with Relish: Music | The Salt Lake Tribune

Life & Circumstance, New Tourdates, "Big Love" Video, and all kinds of stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Love

----and----

Circumstance

Much Much More

~July 21, 2010~

Tour News:

The second leg of the Love and Circumstance Tour kicks off tonight in Portland, OR followed by shows this month in Belingham, WA; Seattle, WA; Crested Butte, CO; Taos, NM; Fruita, CO; Snowmass, CO; Salt Lake City, UT; and Boise, ID.

Hope to see you at the show!

Three dates supporting the legendary John Prine have been set for late August.

UK club dates & Holland theater tour dates with very special guests Romantica scheduled Sept 17-Oct 11.

Carrie will return to Europe in late March/early April to perform in more cities.

Due to the overwhelming success of the inaugural tour this past January featuring Carrie and her friends Ben Sollee and Erin McKeown, the second annual “An Acoustic Café Evening” Tour will return in February 2011Romantica. More details to be announced in September. with very special guests

On The Radio:

"Life and Circumstance" - A one-hour Carrie Rodriguez Radio Special hosted by Alejandro Escovedo is being prepared for release to radio in early August. In addition to the conversation/interview, it will feature live performances from her record release show in NYC at Joe's Pub in April and from her performance in May at The Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.

Love & Circumstance (album) at AAA & Americana Radio...

AAA non-com – Love & Circumstance reached 26* on the AAA Non-com charts
Americana - Love & Circumstance reached #3 on the Americana chart.
Love & Circumstance also reached #2 on the monthly Folk Music chart.

Over 180 “specialty” shows from around the country played tracks from the new album.

Video Update:

The "Big Love" video shot in June looks GREAT! It will debut on Alternate Root TV in late July/early August. Will keep you posted.

New Live Video of “La Punalada Trapera”can be watched at CarrieTV on Youtube.

Shot during her record release performance at Joe's Pub in NYC on April 13, 2010.

Check it out:

In The Media:

Carrie will be featured on Extra TV this month (TBA). Here's a sneak peak clip of her performance. Extra also taped an Interview/Performance with Carrie in Spanish for Extra TV en Espanol which will air this week

Mas Carrie en Espanol:

Carrie will be featured in the July issue of People en Espanol. Be sure to pick up your copy at the newsstand.

Music News and More:

Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez - "The New Bye & Bye, The Best of the Trainwreck Years (2002-2007)" - will be released in the US, Canada & Europe on Oct 12th via, you guessed it, Trainwreck Records and it features four (4) new songs.

Carrie will be a featured vocalist on two tracks off the forthcoming Los Lonely Boys - Live Acoustic album (as yet untitled) - Alejandro Escovedo will also be joining Carrie and The Texican Trio on "Heaven" and "Beast of Burden". The tracks were recorded in February this year while Carrie and Alejandro performed with the boys as part of The Brotherhood Tour. Album is set to release in the U.S. early October of this year.

Carrie Rodriguez/Ben Kyle (of Romantica) Duet Album will be available in Feb. 2011 exclusively at the “An Acoustic Café Evening” Tour shows.

Love and Circumstance will be released in Holland via Munich Records.

__________________________________________________________________________

"“Rodriguez has taken a handful of classic tracks from her genre and truly made them her own. ... what makes the album is her sweet yet powerful vocals."" — Daniela Garcia, Venus Zine

"a superior collection of Americana-flavored country-pop, delivered with exquisite taste, and proves a fine showcase for Rodriguez’ marvelous voice and interpretive skills. Recommended!
--- John Taylor, Blog Critics

" “Taken as a whole, the album is a slow burn reminiscent of Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball. ...the best showcase of Carrie Rodriguez’s talent to date.” " — Juli Thanki, Music & Musicians

"...simply an understated triumph. Grade: A " — Glide Magazine

"Taken as a whole, the album is a slow burn reminiscent of Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball. ...the best showcase of Carrie Rodriguez’s talent to date." — Juli Thanki, Music & Musicians

Follow Carrie on Twitter: www.twitter.com/carriemusictx

UPCOMING SHOWS:

Green Frog Cafe Bellingham, WA Fri Jul 23 10 07:00 PM
Tractor Tavern Seattle, WA Sat Jul 24 10 09:30 PM
Center For The Arts Crested Butte, CO Mon Jul 26 10 07:00 PM
Three20South Breckenridge, CO Mon Jul 26 10 08:00 PM
Solar Center Taos, NM Tue Jul 27 10 07:00 PM
Colorado Riverfront Concert Grand Junction, CO Wed Jul 28 10 07:30 PM
Jazz Aspen Snowmass Snowmass Village, CO Thu Jul 29 10 08:00 PM
Burt’s Tiki Lounge Albuquerque, NM Fri Jul 30 10 07:00 PM
Egyptian Theater Boise, ID Sat Jul 31 10 08:00 PM
The Lodge at Redfish Lake Stanley, ID Sun Aug 01 10 08:00 PM
Panida Theatre Sandpoint, ID Wed Aug 04 10 08:00 PM
Top Hat Missoula, MT Thu Aug 05 10 08:00 PM
Lindley Park Bozeman, MT Fri Aug 06 10 07:00 PM
Mangy Moose Teton Village, WY Sat Aug 07 10 07:00 PM
Avalon Theatre Grand Junction, CO Tue Aug 17 10 08:00 PM

For more info please visit: www.carrierodriguez.com

"GREEN PASTURES", DAR WILLIAMS, SARA WATKINS, CARRIE RODRIGUEZ

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:31:00 +0000

Girl Power - Kansas City with Grace Potter, Dar Williams, and more...

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:21:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:15:00 +0000

Review | Grace Potter, Dar Williams and other women put down long roots - KansasCity.com

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:03:00 +0000

By BILL BROWNLEE

Special to The Star

Featuring five distinct strains of American roots music, Thursday’s lineup at Crossroads KC promised to provide one of the summer’s most notable concerts.

What appeared appealing on paper, however, didn’t entirely come to fruition. The five-hour event served as a miniature festival. Headlined by rock ’n’ roll band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the show also featured traditional folkie Dar Williams, singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez, bluegrass-based Sara Watkins, and local pop artist Julia Peterson.

Williams and Watkins are touring together. Otherwise, the rare grouping of talent represented a one-time event.

“What a cool bill,” Rodriguez marveled. “I’m honored to be a part of it. All these ladies can play the crap out of their instruments. It’s really inspiring.”

After a pleasant opening set of lilting soft rock by Kansas City-based Peterson, Watkins dazzled attentive listeners with an enchanting solo recital of folk and bluegrass.

“I grew up in a semi-sorta bluegrass kind of world,” Watkins said of her musical upbringing. Although the member of popular bluegrass act Nickel Creek played several instruments during her solo set, Watkins’ fiddle work was particularly memorable.

Filled with longing, Watkins’ expressive voice charmed on a delicate reading of “My Friend” and a haunting version of Tom Waits’ “Pony.”

She lightened the mood with sunny interpretations of the Stone Poneys hit “Different Drum” and Robert Earl Keen’s “Feeling Good Again.” A playful rendition of John Hartford’s “Long Hot Summer Days” was even better. With just violin, voice and the authoritative stomp of her foot, Watkins created a backwoods symphony.

Rodriguez also plays a mean fiddle, but the optimism of Watkins was replaced by Rodriguez’s fierce and unflinching perspective. She betrayed her Texas roots by opening with a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues.”

As that lyric suggests, Rodriguez often sounded “alone and low as low can be.” “When I Heard Gypsy Davy Sing,” written by her father, David, and the original “Seven Angels on a Bicycle” were harrowing. In such moments, Rodriguez successfully combined the sensitivity of Texas troubadour Nanci Griffith and the tough street sensibility of New York’s Lou Reed.

Williams demonstrated why she’s become a mainstay on the contemporary folk circuit during her genial hourlong set.

Ongoing technical problems failed to diminish the strength of beloved material including “The Babysitter’s Here,” “The Christians and the Pagans,” “Spring Street” and “As Cool as I Am.” The accompaniment by keyboardist Bryn Roberts added a subtle sense of grandeur.

Subtlety is not an ingredient of Grace Potter and the Nocturnal’s steady climb to stardom. Its front woman looks like an Alberto Varga pinup model, and the band rocks as if it’s 1974.

Potter wails like an unhinged Steve Marriott, and the retro boogie is undeniably soulful. Although Potter and her four-piece band concluded their two-hour set well after midnight, the memory of the evening’s best moment lingered.

Rodriguez and Watkins joined Williams for a heavenly take on “Green Pastures.” “This is like an old radio show,” Williams said as Rodriguez and Watkins shared a microphone.

The full extent of their combined talent was fully realized on the gospel song. “First time ever together on stage — Carrie Rodriguez and Sara Watkins,” Williams later said.

The magical collaboration wasn’t appreciated by everyone. About half of the audience of about 400 treated the first four acts as nuisances to be endured before Potter performed. Distractions weren’t limited to the rude chatter of bipeds.

“The dog barks in time,” Watkins noted of unwelcome canine accompaniment. While the concert might have been better suited to a hushed theater, the cool temperature and rainbow-tinged sky were wondrously delightful. Rodriguez appreciated the setting.

“Oh,” she sighed. “Look at that sunset. Gorgeous!”

Acoustic Guitar: Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstance

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:59:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstance

By Celine Keating

Carrie Rodriguez doesn’t just cover the love songs in her fourth album, she inhabits them. The Austin, Texas, singer-songwriter grew up among musicians, studied violin at Berklee College of Music, plays fiddle, electric mandolin, and tenor guitar, and toured with Chip Taylor. That pedigree shows on Love and Circumstance, which has a big, polished sound rich in texture and instrumentation. Hans Holzen (guitar and mandolin) and Kyle Kegerreis (bass) are joined by guests Bill Frisell (guitar), Greg Leisz (lap steel), and Buddy Miller and Aoife O’Donovan (harmony vocals). Rodriguez’s voice is arresting whether she’s slowing down Lucinda Williams’s “Steal Your Love,” giving a fresh interpretation to Richard Thompson’s “Waltzing’s for Dreamers,” or belting it out on “Big Love” (Little Village). This is masterful musicianship, with primacy given to the guitars, which blend beautifully yet inhabit different spaces within the songs, so that the character of each—tremolo, acoustic, electric, tenor—shines. There are lovely touches on every cut, like the ecstatic single lines on “La Puñalda Trapera” that play up Rodriguez’s soulfulness or the way Frisell’s guitar dances jazzily around the single repeated notes chiming from Rodriguez’s mandolin on Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” A stunner. (Ninth Street Opus)

http://blogcritics.org/

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:53:00 +0000

Music Review: Carrie Rodriguez – Love And Circumstance

Author: John Taylor — Published: Jun 30, 2010 at 5:37 am

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-carrie-rodriguez-love-and/##ixzz0stkuRPbY

Carrie Rodriguez would get props just for the song selections she’s chosen for her third solo outing. Hot on the heels of two discs peppered with her own compositions, Rodriguez has opted for an all-covers collection that showcases her emergence as a strong singer easily able to make any song her own.

And what songs they are! With material from the likes of Ry Cooder and John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Merle Haggard, and Hank Williams, Rodriguez exhibits exquisite taste in tunes. But as Love And Circumstance shows, she doesn’t just pick great songs – she knocks ‘em out of the park, with renditions that range from big and bold (“Big Love,” the disc’s opener, and “Wide River To Cross” that follows) to the shimmery melancholy of “I’m Not For Love.”

With sympathetic production courtesy of Lee Townsend, Rodriguez leads her working band - guitarist Hans Holzen, bassist Kyle Kegerreis, and drummer Eric Platz – with a sure and steady hand, her own instrumental contributions (tenor guitar, fiddle, and mandolin) a subtle but essential element in the musical tapestry. Guests include pedal steel wiz Greg Liesz and guitarist Doug Wamble, with Buddy Miller contributing harmony vocals on a handful.

They’re all love songs of one sort or another, and Rodriguez is primarily reflective throughout – though a few tracks feature crunching guitars, most arrangements are subtle and subdued, with Rodriguez’ voice, earthy and ethereal at the same time, given lots of space. She’s wistful on a poignant cover of her father’s “When I Heard Gypsy Dave Sing,” and sultry on Lucinda William’s “Steal Your Love.” The only tune that doesn’t quite work is her rather exaggerated take on “Today I Started Loving You Again” – admittedly a song covered so often it begs a unique approach, here Rodriguez’ breathy hesitation is a bit distracting. She takes control of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” though, accompanied only by understated guitar and her own mandolin, and follows up with a stunning closer (“La Punalada Trapera”), sung in Spanish.

A little too laid back to break new ground, perhaps, but Love And Circumstance is nonetheless a superior collection of Americana-flavored country-pop, delivered with exquisite taste, and proves a fine showcase for Rodriguez’ marvelous voice and interpretive skills. Recommended!

Carrie Rodriguez | CD Reviews | East Bay Express

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:28:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez
Love and Circumstances
By Lee Hildebrand

I don't need a knife/I don't need a gun/I know how to steal your love/I don't want your drugs/I don't want your money/I just wanna steal your love, Carrie Rodriguez sings with seductive sass on "Steal Your Love," a Lucinda Williams song from her new CD on the Berkeley-based Ninth Street Opus label. Rodriguez's soulful mezzo tones are framed by Bill Frisell's gently weeping guitar, and her band's loping, two-beat country-rock groove.

The daughter of Texas singer-songwriter David Rodriguez and a first-rate tunesmith in her own right, the Austin-based singing fiddler, mandolinist, and tenor guitarist delivers only interpretations of others' work on her third solo disc, including songs by Merle Haggard, John Hiatt, Julie and Buddy Miller and, Richard Thompson, M. Ward, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, and her dad. Producer Lee Townsend provides her with elegant folk-country support and augments her band with guest pickers Frisell, Greg Leisz, and Doug Wamble. Her reading of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," backed only by Frisell's guitar and her own mandolin, is particularly haunting.

The ringer is "La Puñalada Trapera" ("The Ragman's Stab"), a waltz popularized in the 1950s by her great aunt, San Antonio-born ranchera singer Eva Garza. One needn't necessarily be conversant in Spanish to feel the passion that flows up from Rodriguez's lungs and trips off her tongue. (Ninth Street Opus)

Texas fiddler Carrie Rodriguez gets back to her roots - Santa Cruz Sentinel

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:08:00 +0000

By Bonnie Horgos
Posted: 06/24/2010 12:15:17 PM PDT

For most classical musicians, a scholarship at Ohio's Oberlin Conservatory would be the ultimate career crescendo. Yet there violinist Carrie Rodriguez was, yearning for her homeland of Austin, Texas.

"I was sitting in my dorm room playing along with Hank Williams records instead of practicing Tchaikovsky," Rodriguez said. "I missed the music of Texas. I missed doing different things with my violin."

Getting back to her roots, the 30-something Rodriguez has since become a singer-songwriter, creating Americana albums filled with twangs, slides and, of course, plenty of fiddle she continued to study violin at Berklee College of Music. Rodriguez's album "Love and Circumstances," released April 13, delivers covers of her favorite songs, which she'll perform tonight at Don Quixote's.

"Some of the songs have been a part of my live shows for three or four years," Rodriguez said. "I would often close with my great-aunt Eva Garza's song La Punalada Trapera.' People would come up asking where they could get a recording of the song."

That's where "Love and Circumstances" comes in, the song appropriately closing the album.

Family is obviously an important theme of "Love and Circumstances." Rodriguez also covers her father, popular Texas singer-songwriter David Rodriguez, on "When I Heard Gypsy Davy Sing."

Paying tribute to her dad was important; he introduced Rodriguez to music, giving her a Leonard Cohen record for her 9th birthday she didn't
pick it up until angst kicked in at age 13. The two began playing music together, touring the Netherlands by the time Rodriguez was 15.

Musicians didn't have to be blood relatives to get on the album, though. Other covered artists include Merle Haggard, M. Ward and -- how could she not? -- Hank Williams. Rodriguez croons the godfather of country's heart-wrenching song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry;" she seems comfortable with her vocals, giving the classic the emotion it deserves.

Rodriguez wasn't always belting out the ballads, though.

Chip Taylor, the popular songwriter who penned "Wild Thing," asked Rodriguez to sing backup vocals for a European tour after he heard her perform in 2001 at the Austin music festival South By Southwest.

"I wanted the gig, so I tried to give him what he wanted," Rodriguez said.

Pretty soon, the two were singing duets together; they released an album in 2002 and have since released several albums together.

Even with the acclaimed musician's support, Rodriguez was worried.

"I'd say to him, People are going to hear this and know I'm a violinist, not a singer,'" Rodriguez said. "I thought since I worked so hard on the violin, I had to work equally as hard at singing."

With time, Rodriguez became comfortable singing, discovering it helped her violin playing as well; she teaches at summer fiddle camps when she can, always having the kids sing melodies before striking their bow.

"Singing helped me to play the violin more lyrically," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez will bring her fiddle to Don Quixotes's tonight at 7:30 p.m., which will definitely be a change of scenery for the Texan.

"I feel lucky that I get to see so many places on tour, especially Don Quixote's," Rodriguez said. "As I recall, it's up there in the mountains, with ... are those redwoods? Yes, redwoods."

NevadaAppeal.com

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:59:00 +0000

Unique sound comes to local Brewery

By Karel Ancona-Henry

For the Nevada Appeal

Carrie Rodriguez will perform at the Brewery Arts Center on Sunday.

Sarah Wilson/Think Press

Listen to Carrie Rodriguez play, and the first realization that comes is how fantastically talented she is. Try to figure out how to categorize the sound, and one thing that's absolutely clear is there is no defining what she does, a fact that she finds pleasing.

“People will see me in an elevator with my guitar and ask what kind of music I play and since I figure they're not going to know who I am anyway, I just say I'm a jazz musician,” she said, laughing. “Or when we're on the road and pumping gas at a gas station, people ask and I tell them I'm a member of the Miami Sound Machine.”

This is usually met, Rodriguez said, with “‘they're touring again?' or for the under-30 crowd you totally lose them.”

“I like that there's no way to pinpoint the sound specifically,” she said. “I play guitar and fiddle. I'm a singer/songwriter who plays whatever resonates with me, and hopefully it all works together.”

This classically trained violinist comes from a family rich with musical and artistic ability.

“My mother (Katy Nail) is a visual artist and my dad (Dave Rodriguez) is a singer/songwriter who used to put me to sleep at night listening to angry, political music,” she said. “I never had a plan to do this when I grew up, but I also never had a Plan B or any pressure to have a Plan B — my mom paints and makes her living at it, so I grew up with the feeling that you should do what you love.”

And making music is her love.

She is inspired in her own writing and performing by simple things — the beauty of nature, the places she travels and people she meets.

“Just opening the front door and stepping outside inspires me,” she said. “I really enjoy playing so of course being on stage is a joy, and the studio work is awesome because rather than focusing on the audience and do they like me, the entire focus is on making the most beautiful song possible.”

Rodriguez also looks for simplicity and craftsmanship when selecting others artists' songs to play or record.

“Songs with simple lyrics that grab me and are beautifully crafted, definitely,” she said. “Rex's Blues,” is one title on her latest CD, “Love & Circumstances,” released in April. This is a compilation of cover songs that have touched her in some way, and also celebrates her family, including her great aunt Eva Garza who had recorded on Decca Records in the 1950s. The song “When I Heard Davy Gypsy Sing,” is a tribute to her father.

“It really is his autobiography. He left when I was 15, went to Europe and hasn't set foot on U.S. soil since,” she said. “His leaving was very emotional for the family ... that song is heavy, and it's heavy singing it, but it's also a healing song. A very emotionally charged song.

“I started playing clubs in Austin with my dad when I was 12,” she said. “When I was 14, we were playing at La Zona Rosa, and my mom would tell me to come home before midnight, because it was a school night, and of course, Dad would bring me home at 12:30 or 1:30 (a.m.).

“So I was singing at La Zona Rosa and there was this really cute waiter, who was a little older who also had a band, which of course made him the ideal crush for me,” she said. “At 12:05 here he came, tapping my foot and when I leaned down he said, ‘Uh Carrie, your mother's on the phone, it's time to come home.' That was soooo humiliating.”

Today with no curfew in her way, Rodriguez is free to bring the house down. She takes the stage Sunday at Brewery Arts Center Outdoor Amphitheater, 449 W. King St.

Beth Peerless: Singer, songwriter and violinist Carrie Rodriguez goes back to her roots on new album - MontereyHerald.com

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:46:00 +0000

Beth Peerless
Cruzin'

Posted: 06/24/2010 01:47:15 AM PDT

Updated: 06/24/2010 09:50:10 AM PDT

When a young woman arrives on the scene as a musical partner to Chip Taylor, the famous writer of the tune "Wild Thing," (originally performed by The Troggs and a Top 40 hit in the early '60s, but seriously unleashed upon the world as the vehicle for Jimi Hendrix's famous guitar-burning episode at the Monterey Pop Festival), then it only seems natural she may not stand out next to him.
But that's not the case and it never has been for the young woman named Carrie Rodriguez.
Taylor could not deny her talent when he saw her at the 2001 South by Southwest music conference in Austin. At his request, they proceeded to tour the world for several years as a duo, and to record four albums.
The Austin-based violinist, guitarist, singer and songwriter has spread her wings and is soaring in her solo career, especially now with the release of her latest recording "Love and Circumstance."
Produced by the legendary Lee Townsend, the album is a scrapbook of other musicians' songs that have meaning in Rodriguez's relatively short life, all of 31 years.
First and foremost there are a couple tunes by her father, David Rodriguez, followed by influential roots music artists John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner (aka Little Village), Buddy and Julie Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Richard Thompson, Townes Van Zandt, M. Ward, Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens, Hank Williams and Lucinda Williams.
"It was very important for me to go back to my
roots with this record and concentrate on what was important to me," Rodriguez explained, "songwriters like Richard Thompson, Townes, Hank, they're the ones who initially inspired me."
In addition to Taylor, she has toured with Alejandro Escovedo and Lucinda Williams. Her trio currently lists Hans Holzen on guitars and Kyle Kegerreis on bass.
Guest artists on "Love and Circumstance," recorded at her new record label Ninth Street Opus' studios in Berkeley and at the renowned Fantasy Studios, include guitarist Bill Frisell, pedal steel and slide guitarist Greg Leisz, and vocalists Aoife O'Donovan (from Crooked Still) and Buddy Miller contributing background harmony.
"Greg Leisz is the greatest pedal steel player in the world, and for someone with a Bill Frisell record collection, getting to play with him is a dream," Rodriguez said in her promotional materials.

"15th Annual Houston Women's Festival" With Sarah Bettens, Carrie Rodriguez, Blame Sally, Ginger Leigh, Flawlessly Inadequate, Michelle Malone, Halcyon, Houston, TX - "15th Annual Houston Women's Festival" With Sarah Bettens, Carrie Rodriguez, Blame Sally, Ginger Leigh, Flawlessly Inadequate, Michelle Malone, Halcyon, event - "15th Annual Houston Women's Festival" With Sarah Bettens, Carrie Rodriguez, Blame Sally, Ginger Leigh, Flawlessly Inadequate, Michelle Malone, Halcyon Houston Texas | LikeMe

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:38:00 +0000

The Inside Word

Houston Press

Houston, TX

"15th Annual Houston Women's Festival"

Hard to believe it‘s been 15 years since the inaugural Houston Women‘s Festival, but time flies when you‘re having fun. This year‘s local Lilith Fair is headlined by Atlanta-based Michelle Malone, whose album Debris recently made the first cut for consideration an Americana Grammy nomination. Malone is cut from the same blues-rockin‘ cloth as Bonnie Raitt and Anne McCue, and knows what to do with that glass slide when she slips it on her ring finger. The festival‘s strong lineup also includes Minneapolis indie-rockers Sick of Sarah, Florida acoustic duo Halcyon, bluesy Seattle rocker Vicci Martinez, and Austin‘s funkster poet Suzanna Choffel. Locals include rootsy rockers Gadget White and jazzy metal-meisters Flawlessly Inadequate.

Carrie Rodriguez explores heartbreak and romance | Features | Charleston City Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:32:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez explores heartbreak and romance | Features | Charleston City Paper

Hard love from Texas by T. Ballard Lesemann

Sarah Wilson

Carrie Rodriguez

carrierodriguez.com

"Big Love" stream available on original post HERE.

from the album Love and Circumstance

"When I Heard Gyspy Davy Sing"

stream available on original post HERE

from the album Love and Circumstance

Texas songstress Carrie Rodriguez finds beauty in sadness on her new LP

"I really enjoy the juxtaposition of kind of a pretty, up-sounding melody with deadly sad lyrics — that's such a great combination," says acclaimed singer/songwriter Carrie Rodriguez. Listening to her new release Love and Circumstance, a beautiful and melancholic collection of renditions that includes songs written by her father and her aunt — it takes just a few moments to get her point.

After years of collaboration with other artists, Rodriguez only recently started recording her own albums and touring with her own band. Love and Circumstance, her third studio album, steps away from the craft of songwriting and focuses on presenting a consistent theme.

"There's nothing too happy on this album," the Austin, Texas, native says with a chuckle. "There are only a few glimmers of hope. It started with a song I sing in Spanish ["La Puñalada Trapera"], which was a song my great aunt recorded 50 years ago. It was part of my set when I played live. People asked me, When is that song going to be on an album?' and I thought, 'I better make one.'"

She almost added a recording of "La Puñalada Trapera" on her previous album of original music, but she felt it'd be out of place. The title translates into "the treacherous backstab."

"That song is a deadly kind of love song," says Rodriguez. "It's really dramatic. It's basically saying, 'My life is ruined and it's all your fault.' I started from that point, and there were a few other covers that I'd been singing for years, like Lucinda Williams' 'Steal Your Love' and Merle Haggard's 'I Started Loving You Again.' Then I started digging deep and thinking about which songs were most important to me."

Love and Circumstance meanders from tragedy and heartbreak to almost comical frustration and disappointment. Rodriguez and her band sway from one elegant countrified style to another — from straightforward boot stompers and slow waltzes to more misty and spacious acoustic ballads.

"They're all such great songs, so I wanted the lyrics to be a dominating force on each track," says Rodriguez. "It's a tricky balance. I was an instrumentalist first, and I also place a lot of importance on the sound of the track and the sound of the instruments and the effects that we use. But we also try to let the lyrics dominate in an appropriate way."

Love and Circumstance includes compositions from some of the finest folk, pop-rock, and country songsmiths out there. The tracks include the harmony-heavy "Big Love" by Little Village, the waltzy "Wide River to Cross" by Buddy Miller & Julie Miller, the mandolin-driven tune "Eyes on the Prize" by M. Ward, and the strummy Williams heartbreaker "Steal Your Love." The feathery "When I Heard Gyspy Davy Sing" was penned by Rodriguez's father, David. Other highlights include numbers by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Richard Thompson, Hank Williams, and Townes Van Zandt.

"I try to be in the story of the songs and feel the emotion of the character," says Rodriguez. "Hopefully, it comes out sounding as natural as possible. I grew up playing the violin. I don't have the ability to do fancy things with my voice, so I don't even try. I just try to sound honest, especially when covering other people's songs."

There's plenty of space in the songs, with a clean and crisp separation within the instrumentation and arrangements. It allows Rodriguez to sing easily over things with clarity and expression.

"I think you can hear my Texas twang a lot more," she admits. "I don't know if that was from nerves or nervous energy, but there is definitely a difference between how I sang years ago. It was more tense a few years ago. Now, I just try to put myself inside of the songs. I don't worry about technique, and I try not to over-think things."

In addition to a few guest vocal appearances from Aoife O'Donovan (of Crooked Still) and Buddy Miller, Rodriguez was quite excited to handle the studio sessions with support from her regular backing band of drummer Eric Platz, bassist Kyle Kegerreis, and guitarist Hans Holzen.

"This was my core touring band on the record," she says. "We'd been playing for year already, so it was a real luxury."

This week's show will be an abbreviated version, with Luke Jacobs on pedal steel and Holzen on mandolin and six-string guitar. Rodriguez will switch between fiddle, tenor guitar, and electric mandolin.

"We do have a lot of electric instruments, so we'll still be able to make some ambient, lush sounds," says Rodriguez. "Part of the fun of it for me is playing with different ensembles and having to play things in a very different way. It means I need to change the arrangement or the tempo, which is fun because it keeps it fresh for me. I don't run the risk of going on auto-pilot."

Tags: Carrie Rodriguez, Gage Hall, Visiting Acts

Check Out Carrie Peforming La Puñalada Live at Joe's Pub NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:36:00 +0000

St. Cloud Times Review

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:17:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez - Love and Circumstance

Carrie Rodriguez has released a fine new album entitled “Love and Circumstance.”
The album is a collection of cover songs, but don’t let that discourage you. It’s definitely worth hearing and it’s amazing what she does with some of these songs. That statement is not more true than on her renditions of Lucinda’s Williams’ “Steal Your Love,” Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’ “I Made a Lover’s Prayer” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Every time I hear this young woman sing, I can’t help but think she is somebody to watch. Maybe she’ll be a future alt-country version of Lucinda.

Love and Circumstance Review

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:27:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstances (RED Distribution)

Doomed to be unfairly overlooked by pundits beholden to bigger-label offal, this cover set of country and Americana tunes that have influenced Rodriguez has a tastiness and sweetness that’s rare for a Sheryl Crow chaser. Rodriguez’ tone is one bit Taylor Swift, one bit Lisa Loeb, but her waifishness is tempered with a Joan Osborne maturity, straightforward and thankfully free of forced croaks for decorative value. The first standout is Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River to Cross,” its arpeggiated guitar evoking morning lake-water (Buddy himself provides a smoky harmony that looms larger as the guitars plug in and get loud). The marquee track is a finger-picked version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” whose main thrust is spotlighting Rodriguez’ bang-on vocal technicality. One influence is Rodriguez’ own dad, David, whose insidiously gorgeous Americana tune “When I Heard Gypsy Davy Sing” is rendered in the aloof but pleasant tradition of Eastmountainsouth, a good touchstone comparison act, being that this is isn’t world-weary stuff, nor overtly commercial, simply an understated triumph.
Grade: A

Creative Loafing previews upcoming Carrie Rodriguez show.

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:23:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez Rootsy violin and skin-tight leather pants don't often grace the same stage, but singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez has the perfect combination of sweetness and sass to pull it off. The classically-trained fiddle player seems to wield an almost hypnotic sex appeal onstage – but don't let that fool you: Rodriguez has been nurtured by Americana greats like Alejandro Escovedo and Lyle Lovett and will continue to charm the roots-rock scene with her latest, Love and Circumstance. $12, The Evening Muse, www.theeveningmuse.com. (Allie Goolrick)

Waterloo Records Top Ten Sellers

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 01:02:00 +0000

Top 10 Sellers at Waterloo Records in Austin, TX
1. Sarah Jaffe Suburban Nature
2. Grupo Fantasma El Exstential
3. Roky Erickson True Love Casts…
4. Court Yard Hounds S/T
5. Patty Griffin
Downtown Church
6. Willie Nelson
Country Music
7. Carrie Rodriguez
Love & Circumstance
8. Bob Schneider
Lovely Creatures
9. Spoon
Transference
10. VA – OST
Crazy Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:27:00 +0000

Love And Circumstance

Love And Circumstance
Manufacturer: R.E.D. Distribution
Release Date: 2010-04-13
Sales Rank: 6060

Customer Review Summary (Average Rating : 4.5 / 5.0)
- Rodriguez is gorgieuz
- A real nice batch of Americana

List Price:
$12.98
Lowest New Price:
$9.01
Lowest Used Price:
$8.19

Editorial Review
With Love & Circumstance Carrie Rodriguez demonstrates (if you weren't already convinced by her spectacular sophomore album, She Ain't Me) that she has fully matured into a confident and commanding solo artist, in spite of (or perhaps, because of) the fact that the new album consists entirely of covers. Like Emmylou Harris with her 1995 masterpiece, Wrecking Ball, Carrie mines and polishes gems of other songwriters, delivering them in her own unique style. Carrie's voice is sweet and relaxed with a natural twang, perfectly matched to a soundtrack that is both ethereal (similar to, but not to the same extent as Carrie's first two solo albums and Harris' Wrecking Ball) and rootsy. As an interpreter of other people's songs, Carrie doesn't press to match or outdo the originals, but, instead, sounds comfortable in her own skin. The theme of the album is, well, love and circumstance, and Carrie does a fine job of selecting and sequencing the song cycle, choosing a piece from the public domain (well, actually her father, David's, re-write of a traditional folk song), living and deceased legends (Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams), some of the best contemporary songwriters (Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Gillian Welch, John Hiatt), the new wave of indie folk (M. Ward) and Latino (Polo Urias popularized a song of Carrie's great aunt). This is an album that you do not want to miss.

Customer Reviews
Rodriguez is gorgieuz
5 / 5.0
Amazing effort of this great singer songwriter. After several albums together with Chip Taylor she definitely proofed with this album that she is able to stand on her own feet en maintain the great quality of her previous solo albums. If you listen carefully to this album , you will go back to the shop and buy all her music, for sure.

Great music, great singing and for sure she has also the looks.

A real nice batch of Americana
4 / 5.0
In Love & Circumstance, Ms. Rodriguez, her producer and band have made her most endearing - and potentially enduring - album to date. The CD is one that truly grew on me, as I liked it the first time through but have come to admire and appreciate the songs even more with each additional listen. Start with Carrie's singing. She can be just as subtle or as forceful as the tune requires, like a great actor who alters their persona for the demands of the role. She moves from playful flirtations on "Big Love" to wistful romance on "Today I Started Loving You Again" to a sweetly thoughtful stance "Waltzing's For Dreamers" and beyond. There's a lot to like among the songs on L&C. The styles of music across the album are a mix of Americana, including straight-ahead country, singer-songwriter stuff (all cover tunes), and roots rock. There's a lot to like. My current favorite is a fresh new take on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," done as a riveting duet between Carrie and guitarist Bill Frisell, just the two of them. I dig this CD from start to finish.

(Before anyone asks "why not 5 stars?" - I believe the 5-star rating should be reserved for the very best. L&C is an excellent album, but it's no masterpiece by any means. For those who think anything good should automatically be 5 stars, you've contributed to the watering down of customer ratings on this site.)

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:17:00 +0000

Carrie Rodriguez

“Getting out of my major label deal and starting fresh was a good time for me to evaluate what kind of songs I had been writing and what kind of songs I wanted to write.”

Features • Friday May 21st, 2010 • 12:00 am

Carrie Rodriguez is an old soul. And she’s becoming increasingly at ease with that idea. After a major label run that went awry (as if we haven’t heard that story, eh?), Rodriguez is back to the standards of her uncommon youth — one filled with Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt. Her father, folk singer David Rodriguez, helped provide a musical heritage that had Carrie playing in bars all over Austin by age 12 and on her first European tour at 15. “I think I’ve just been lucky enough to get started early,” she says about being so accomplished at age 31.
Love and Circumstance is the new album, a covers effort you’d think was put together by someone twice her age. Guests like Bill Frisell, Merle Haggard and Buddy Miller accompany the impressive project that features Carrie’s twist on songs from M. Ward to Richard Thompson. It’s a much needed break, she says, to turn to the work of others in order to heal enough to make her own. And in the process, she finds a level of depth and ownership she never expected.

SSv: When it comes to the collaborations, I’d love to ask about why you choose the players that you did. Not in a ‘I like her, but I don’t like him’ type of way, but how do you know who the song is telling you to let into the making and recording of it?
Carrie Rodriguez: Sure, that makes sense. With Buddy, Lee Townsend, the producer and I, talked about recording Buddy and Julie’s song “Wide River to Cross” from the very beginning. As soon as I laid it down, I knew it would sound awesome with harmony vocals and I knew there was no one better than Buddy. [Laughs] Not just because he wrote the song, but in his version, the thing I love the most is his harmony vocals. So that was an easy one to come up with.
Then thinking about that, we had Merle Haggard’s tune that I thought would be amazing as well. And he was so sweet to do it. He was on the road at the time with Robert Plant and he just happened to have a rig that he could record in his hotel room — some fancy, new, modern thing. So he recorded that in his room while touring with rock stars. [Laughs] Very sweet that he made the time to do that.
As far as Greg Leisz goes, I just think everything that he does is magical. It’s really hard for me to make a record and not ask him to be a part of it at this point. He’s recorded on everything I’ve ever done as far as solo projects. And he recorded on the last duet record I made as well. Aside from being a really sweet man and good friend, he’s just so insanely music. Everything he does is perfect. The way he plays pedal steel with a vocal to me is so unique. He plays the pedal steel like a singer and it’s almost as if he’s harmonizing with your vocal and making it sound better.
I think a lot of female singers love to use Greg for that reason. He wraps the sound around the vocal and makes it sound way better than if he wasn’t there. So I’m so grateful to have worked with him so many times and even to be able to call him a friend is wonderful. Not to mention he’s full of great stories; he’s worked with everyone from Joni Mitchell to Beck, and he loves to share crazy stories about that.

SSv: What about Bill Frisell?
Carrie: Well, I probably have more Bill Frisell records than any other artists. I have almost everything he’s ever recorded. I love his spirit, his creativity. I love that he takes a Hank Williams song and turns it into something completely unique. He has such great taste, so it’s fun that he’s so into roots music and country music, being such a consummate jazz player. It’s a very unique thing.
Lee, the producer, is also Bill’s manager and has produced most of his records. That was the appeal to working with Lee, just because I’m such a fan of the records he’s made and I knew it would be a really good match. So going into it, I was hoping Lee would help facilitate some kind of musical situation with Bill for the record. And he did.

SSv: The nature of an album like this is so interesting. I would imagine it gives some fantastic opportunities to highlight or even pay tribute to songs that have moved you or allows for certain creative directions. Yet an album release comes with a cycle of recording, press and touring, which I would imagine pushes some original material back in its timeline. Did you wrestle with that at all?
Carrie: [Pause] I think it was a good time for me to take a break from recording some new songs. Getting out of my major label deal and starting fresh was a good time for me to evaluate what kind of songs I had been writing and what kind of songs I wanted to write. So in the process of choosing this group of songs, it’s helped me narrow down what is important to me. For my next project, I already have a clearer vision of what my next original album will be like. So if it takes a little longer to come out, that’s okay.
In a way, this record feels like my original material to me. I’m just so attached to these songs. [Laughs] So when I’m out playing them, I don’t really feel differently about them than when I’m playing my own songs, so in a way, it doesn’t feel that different than my other records.
SSv: That’s the first time I’ve heard that about a covers album before, in all the conversations I’ve had with artists over the years.
Carrie: Maybe most people don’t feel that way. But I think I spent so much time with those songs by myself playing them and making them into something that felt like my own that I almost feel like I wrote them. When I sing “Steal Your Love,” the Lucinda Williams song, it feels like it’s my song. I’ve just tricked myself into thinking I’ve written this fabulous song. [Laughs] I’m thinking, ‘Damn, I’m good.’
No, it’s really just how connected I feel to the songs. I feel that connected to each and every song, so it’s been fun touring. I love playing them live with the band on the road.
SSv: How many of the original artists have heard your take on the song?

Carrie: Lucinda finally just sent me an e-mail saying how much she loved it, and that was a relief. I was really glad. [Laughs] Buddy has heard it, obviously. My father has heard it. Richard Thompson liked his, which was nice to hear.
SSv: Really?
Carrie: Yeah, he sent a really nice message to my manager about it, saying something like he never expected to hear that song as a country song and that he thought it was really heartfelt. As far as the others, I have no idea if M. Ward has heard his. I don’t know him personally. So the people I know personally have definitely heard their tunes. And of course, some of the folks are no longer with us. But I wonder if Merle has heard his. It’d be fun to see what he thinks about that tune.
SSv: I want to go back to what you said about the covers elaborating on your own original material. Can you elaborate?
Carrie: When I made my last record, She Ain’t Me, I learned a lot by doing it. I got to write with some great writers like Dan Wilson, Mary Gauthier and Gary Louris. I learned a lot from doing that, but because it was also on a major label, I had this thing looming over my head that said, ‘Okay, these songs have to get played on the radio.’ I had all these people who were giving me so much to work with.
I hate to say that it influenced the music at all, but it probably did. The music was a big stress on me and made me kind of stay away from writing certain types of songs that might be more intimate or folky in nature — more like something I grew up hearing like a Townes Van Zandt song. I was scared to get too far into things like that. I was trying to keep it more up.
Now with this, I’m no longer on a major label and I’m just making this record because I love these songs. This is the kind of music I want to play and these songs mean just as much or more to me than a lot of my own material. So in the process of choosing those songs, it’s told me that my heart is still very connected to the kind of music I grew up on and rootsier things. Moving forward, I don’t want to shy away from that. I don’t really mind if people want to call me ‘folky’ or ‘country’ or whatever. That’s fine. I’m not too concerned about categories.
Up until now, people are always saying, ‘Watch out with the fiddle. Then it will be considered Americana and it won’t get played on the radio station and then you won’t have people coming out to see you because they won’t hear you.’ It’s all this fear stuff that they try to instill in singer/songwriters. [Laughs] I’m done with that. You gotta make music that you believe in. You’re gonna die at any minute, so you gotta do stuff that you love. And that’s what I did with this covers record. I’m really proud of it and I think I will as proud 20 years from now as I am today.
SSv: Is that something you said about your last album in the moment that you made it?
Carrie: Honestly, I did not feel that. I felt proud about certain elements of it and there are certain songs that I will feel that way about 20 years from now. But as a whole, I don’t have the same emotional connection to it that I have with this new one, or that I even had with my first one. So it’s important to keep that in mind moving forward. I don’t want to belittle it, because I grew a lot making that last record. Working with those other songwriters, I learned a lot and I will take that with me. You learn from everything that you do and hopefully that process will continue forever.
SSv: That intersection of art and fear seems impossible to avoid, because even the best of us continue to wrestle in that familiar bed. So what do you learn about that battle to free yourself up in some ways?
Carrie: [Pause] Well, it’s tricky. On one hand, you want to make music that speaks to people and not just yourself. You want other people to feel something from what you’re doing. That’s a way of giving if you are a musician. But there’s a fine line between writing a song that people can relate to and respond to and feel something from and catering and making something you think people will like and that’s why you’re doing it. [Laughs] There’s a fine line to walk between those two things.
But I think the most important thing is that when you first hear a song that immediately gives you the goosebumps when you start to sing it — when you have a real physical reaction to it — that means it’s genuine, at least for me. That’s the way that it works for me. I know that is meaningful to me and so I hope it translates to other people. That’s how I judge things that I’m doing.
SSv: I usually like to end with some tangible plans, so what’s the upcoming schedule look like for you?
Carrie: Well, this month I’m about to start a Midwestern tour in a couple days in Minneapolis. After that, I have a run out in the Southeast and a California run with a festival in June. In July, a lot of outdoor dates where you play outside and the sun is going down. A lot of things out West in beautiful places in Montana and Colorado and Idaho. So it’s a lot of traveling and time spent in the mini-van with my boys. [Laughs] Not super-glamorous, but we sure get to go to some gorgeous places.
No related posts.

By Matt Conner

Skope Magazine Review

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:10:00 +0000

RANDOM STABBINGS & ARTLESS CRITIQUE, JUNE 2010

June 1, 2010 | by Skope Staff

Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstances (RED Distribution)
Doomed to be unfairly overlooked by pundits beholden to bigger-label offal, this cover set of country and Americana tunes that have influenced Rodriguez has a tastiness and sweetness that’s rare for a Sheryl Crow chaser. Rodriguez’ tone is one bit Taylor Swift, one bit Lisa Loeb, but her waifishness is tempered with a Joan Osborne maturity, straightforward and thankfully free of forced croaks for decorative value. The first standout is Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River to Cross,” its arpeggiated guitar evoking morning lake-water (Buddy himself provides a smoky harmony that looms larger as the guitars plug in and get loud). The marquee track is a finger-picked version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” whose main thrust is spotlighting Rodriguez’ bang-on vocal technicality. One influence is Rodriguez’ own dad, David, whose insidiously gorgeous Americana tune “When I Heard Gypsy Davy Sing” is rendered in the aloof but pleasant tradition of Eastmountainsouth, a good touchstone comparison act, being that this is isn’t world-weary stuff, nor overtly commercial, simply an understated triumph.
Grade: A [street date: 4/13/10]

American Songwriter | Country Way Digital 1

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Rodriguez) — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:53:00 +0000

American Songwriter | Country Way Digital 1

Posted using ShareThis

Love & Circumstance

BIG LOVE, BIG TOUR, BIG VIDEO, BIG COVER, AND BIG RADIO SHOW = BIG NEWS!

Carrie Rodriguez - Big Love

Concert review: John Prine | Burger with Relish: Music | The Salt Lake Tribune

Life & Circumstance, New Tourdates, "Big Love" Video, and all kinds of stuff!

"GREEN PASTURES", DAR WILLIAMS, SARA WATKINS, CARRIE RODRIGUEZ

Girl Power - Kansas City with Grace Potter, Dar Williams, and more...

Review | Grace Potter, Dar Williams and other women put down long roots - KansasCity.com

By BILL BROWNLEE

Special to The Star

Acoustic Guitar: Carrie Rodriguez, Love and Circumstance

http://blogcritics.org/

Carrie Rodriguez | CD Reviews | East Bay Express

Texas fiddler Carrie Rodriguez gets back to her roots - Santa Cruz Sentinel

NevadaAppeal.com

Unique sound comes to local Brewery

For the Nevada Appeal

Beth Peerless: Singer, songwriter and violinist Carrie Rodriguez goes back to her roots on new album - MontereyHerald.com

The Inside Word

Houston Press

Carrie Rodriguez explores heartbreak and romance | Features | Charleston City Paper

Carrie Rodriguez

"Big Love" stream available on original post HERE.

"When I Heard Gyspy Davy Sing"

stream available on original post HERE

Check Out Carrie Peforming La Puñalada Live at Joe's Pub NYC

St. Cloud Times Review

Carrie Rodriguez - Love and Circumstance

Love and Circumstance Review

Creative Loafing previews upcoming Carrie Rodriguez show.

Waterloo Records Top Ten Sellers

Love And Circumstance

Carrie Rodriguez

Recent Comments

Skope Magazine Review

RANDOM STABBINGS & ARTLESS CRITIQUE, JUNE 2010

American Songwriter | Country Way Digital 1