Carrie Rodriguez.
“Love and Circumstance.”
With her drop-dead sultry beauty and equally stunning vocal and instrumental chops, it’s no surprise that many a songwriter would enjoy the opportunity to crawl under the covers with Austin-based musician Carrie Rodriguez — musical covers, that is.
Rodriguez’s latest release, “Love and Circumstance,” is an all-cover record, and a choice one at that.
Working with producer Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, Loudon Wainwright III), Rodriguez, with guest stars and her own top-notch touring band (Hans Holzen, guitars; Kyle Kegerreis, bass; Eric Platz, drums), tackles both classics and lesser-knowns. She chooses songs from such aces as John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner (aka Little Village), Hank Williams, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt and her own father, David Rodriguez.
Needless to say, with such a grab-bag of stellar songsmiths to choose from, Rodriguez is starting the recipe for this record with the finest ingredients available.
Listen to "Puñalda Trapera"
The mood of the album is mostly tender and easygoing, with a crisp and sparkly production value that highlights, as each song dictates, a mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation. Not one of these songs comes off as a cheap copy of the original, as Rodriguez works to make each her own.
Surely one of the saddest and most oft-covered tunes in the Great American country songbook is Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” The classic heartbreaker is handled with great delicacy here by Rodriguez, with only her own electric mandolin line and Bill Frisell’s electric guitar accompanying her suitably mournful vocal turn.
Even among such highfalutin’ songwriting company, it is the achingly poetic Van Zandt and his composition “Rex’s Blues” that perhaps partners best with Rodriguez’s evocative vocals and dreamy instrumentation: “I’m chained upon the face of time/ feelin’ full of foolish rhyme/ There ain’t no dark ’til something shines/ I’m bound to leave the dark behind.”
Rodriguez also delves into her Spanish heritage here, delivering a beautiful romantica with the Spanish album closer, “La Puñalada Trapera,” written by Sosa Tomas Mendez. It is a song made popular by Rodriguez’s great aunt, Ava Garza, herself a tremendously popular Tejano movie star and singer of the ’40s and ’50s. Lovely is the word for it, whatever your first language.
Rodriguez is relatively new on the national scene, but it is clear here that her family roots reach deep into the fertile music traditions of Texas and Mexico. “Love & Circumstance” captures well the many facets of this young and talented artist’s gifts.
Linda East Brady
Standard-Examiner music writer
