Carrie Rodriguez

This week’s voice to hear hails from the state of Texas. Carrie Rodriguez was born in Austin and started playing the violin at the age of five. By the age of ten she had already played Carnegie Hall in New York City. At this point she was playing classical music, a far cry from what she is currently playing. In her teens she started playing with her father, singer-songwriter David Rodriguez, in clubs around Austin.

In 1996 Carrie went to college to study classical music, but soon discovered that she wanted to stretch her playing abilities to other styles of music. She decided to drop the violin and pick up the fiddle. She quite the college she was going to and enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied bluegrass, jazz, swing and everything else she could.

During a South by Southwest show with another band Carrie was seen by Chip Taylor, writer of “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” He was knocked out by her fiddle playing and invited her to tour with him in Europe. It was during their touring in Europe that Chip convinced Carrie to sing. Up to this time Carrie had considered herself a fiddle player and not a singer.

Before long the two found themselves in the studio recording a duet album. Their album Let’s Leave This Town was met with great critical acclaim. Their second album The Trouble With Humans went to number one on the Americana charts. After their third album Red Dog Tracks Carrie decided it was time to do a solo album.

Last year she recorded and released her first solo album Seven Angels On A Bicycle. The new album ranges wide in style, from Americana to Jazz to Folk. Her old partner Chip Taylor doesn’t abandon her for her solo outing. He helped co write many of the tunes and produced the album with her. Carrie’s voice is tender and seductive and flirty, sometimes all in the same song.

Carrie Rodriquez is a voice that is going to go far, she is still young, in her twenties and has the talent to carry her far.