Music Review: Carrie Rodriguez - She Ain't Me

Is Carrie Rodriguez a Good Cowgirl Gone Bad?

Well, not exactly. But the singer-songwriter who grew up in Austin, Texas, does seem to be going through a transformation on her second solo record She Ain’t Me (Manhattan/Back Porch).

Gone are the cowboy boots that graced the cover of her excellent debut album, Seven Angels on a Bicycle, back in 2006. Also gone is Chip Taylor (“Wild Thing,” “Angel of the Morning”), her Angels co-writer and producer who was considered a musical mentor after he discovered Rodriguez, then made three duet records with her.

Some of the twang seems to be missing, too, along with her trademark fiddle, which she utilizes to great effect, but only on three cuts of the new record. And Austin is a tiny dot in her rearview mirror now that she calls Brooklyn, N.Y., her home.

If it’s intended to go in a more sophisticated direction under the lush production of Malcolm Burn (Chris Whitley, Emmylou Harris), it appears to be working. The classically trained Rodriguez (Oberlin Conservatory, Berklee College of Music) is impossible to categorize these days. (Is she folk? Is she Americana? Is she still a little bit country?) And that seems to be the idea.

While her sound is still progressing, Rodriguez, the daughter of a folk-singing father (David) and opera-obsessed mother (visual artist Katy Nail, who brought a 5-year-old Carrie to an Itzhak Perlman concert), has not completely dug up her Texas roots or her alt-country sensibilities.

Her collaborators on She Ain’t Me include The Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, Son Volt’s Jim Boquist, and co-writer Mary Gauthier (“Absence”), with vocal contributions coming from Aoife O’Donovan (“Absence” and the beautiful “Grace”) and Lucinda Williams (“Mask of Moses”).

Rodriguez toured with Williams recently and sat in on fiddle with the singer who has the famous car-wheels-on-a-gravel-road voice. And she also got a career boost in The New York Times last year from the Grammy Award-winning artist, who recommended Seven Angels on a Bicycle. Williams on Rodriguez: “I have to say I am very impressed. She's got something unique in her voice that's very subtle and a little smoky and sweet. She's got a refreshingly spunky attitude to go along with it. I detect a certain wisdom in her, and yet a sense of wonder as well.”

Article Author: Michael Bialas

A newspaper editor and former college football player, Michael Bialas makes sports his business but exploring and reviewing music, movies, TV and other forms of pop culture are among the games he enjoys playing now.
Technorati Profile

Visit Michael Bialas's author page — Michael Bialas's Blog