Philadelphia Weekly

MUSIC

Critic's Pick: Carrie Rodriguez

Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Jan. 3, 2012

Country-folk singer Carrie Rodriguez is a vintage red that improves with time. A skilled violinist with girl-next-door tenderness disguising spunky self- possession, Rodriguez essentially served a five-year internship with esteemed Texas songwriter Chip Taylor (“Wild Thing,” “Angel of the Morning”). She recorded three studio albums and an EP with Taylor before making her solo debut with 2006’s Seven Angels on a Bicycle. Whether by design or happenstance, she favors collaboration—from a penchant for striking duets to co-writing. Her third studio solo release, 2010’s splendid covers disc Love and Circumstances, features guitarists Buddy Miller and Bill Frisell, while 2008’s She Ain’t Me includes songs written with Gary Louris (Jayhawks) and Mary Gauthier, among others. Stylistically, she recalls Suzanne Vega transplanted from Luka’s apartment building to the dusty Southwest, where her alternately delicate/rocking folk flirts with lonesome twang and the balladry of loping ache. (Chris Parker)

Thurs., Jan. 5, 8pm. $12. Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St. 215.928.0770. tinangel.com