Carrie Rodriguez

Event information

At each stage of Carrie Rodriguez’s career, as a fiddler, singer, and songwriter—the Austin, Texas, native has learned the importance of letting go. That was certainly true when it came to recording her fifth solo album, ‘Give Me All You Got’, her first of largely original tunes in several years. “In the making of ‘Love and Circumstance’ in 2008, I chose to sing other people’s songs,” Rodriguez explains. “I needed to take a step back from songwriting and think about the kinds of songs that feel important to sing. Doing that inspired me to write again.”

Rodriguez, who came to attention a decade ago performing with singer-songwriter Chip Taylor, has established an impressive roster of touring, recording, and co-writing affiliations—with Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Alejandro Escovedo, guitarist Bill Frisell, and others. Although she has issued three albums under her own name and enjoyed major label support for 2008’s ‘She Ain’t Me’, the release of ‘Give Me All You Got’ marks a giant step for Rodriguez. The album was recorded with her own band and produced by the renowned Lee Townsend, with whom she has worked closely in the past. And the songs—which she wrote, co-wrote, or handpicked from the repertoire of longtime collaborators—establish her musical identity more powerfully than ever before.

After recording four studio albums with Taylor, Rodriguez made her solo debut in 2006 with ‘Seven Angels on a Bicycle’. “All of a sudden I found myself in this position of being called a singer-songwriter, which felt so strange,” she says. But she returns to that role quite comfortably on ‘Give Me All You Got’. The album includes songs by Taylor and Ben Kyle (with whom Rodriguez recorded the 2011 EP ‘We Still Love Our Country’), but its emotional core resides in originals drawn from Carrie’s personal experience.

Producer Lee Townsend, known for his work with Bill Frisell, Loudon Wainwright III, Kelly Joe Phelps, Crooked Still, and many others, captured the band—Carrie on fiddle, tenor guitar, and vocals; Luke Jacobs and Hans Holzen on acoustic, electric, and lap steel guitars, mandolin, and vocals; Kyle Kegerreis on upright and electric bass; Eric Deutsch on piano, Rhodes, and Hammond B3; and Don Heffington on drums and percussion—essentially live in the studio. “The live energy of the band is central to this album,” he says.

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