Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez "sound as if they were born to sing together," declares Vintage Guitar magazine. It's an ironic fact, given the nearly four decades between their births. But just a listen to The Trouble with Humans, the duo's second album, reveals a stunning natural chemistry that has grown between the legendary veteran songwriter and the young Texas fiddler since they first joined forces some three years ago.
On their debut release together, Let's Leave This Town, Taylor & Rodriguez created "some of the sweetest music imaginable," notes England's Birmingham Evening Mail. The album won a slew of raves such as "an exquisite treasure" (Country Weekly), "one of those rare, magical meetings" (Austin Chronicle), a "brilliant record. Simply stunning" (Performing Songwriter), "a gourmet treat" (Third Coast Music) and "a must-have record" (No Depression). In addition to being a landmark in the reemergence of Taylor, who Rolling Stone hails as "one of America's finest songwriters as well as a masterful singer and performer," Let's Leave This Town introduced Rodriguez as "a star in the making [who] fiddles like Alison Krauss and sings with the soul-searching quaver of Iris DeMent" (Charleston Gazette).
Now The Trouble with Humans showcases the burgeoning synergy of what the Nashville Tennessean calls "a beautiful duo." It features some of the finest compositions yet in Taylor's distinguished career as well as three songs co-written with Rodriguez, who also co-produced the album with Taylor. Recorded in the classic fashion, primarily live in the studio with a distinguished crew of musicians, it's an album with an organic charm and richness as seductive as a sunny Texas spring day with the bluebonnets in bloom. Backing Taylor & Rodriguez as before are folk scene stalwarts John McGann (guitar) and Jim Whitney (upright bass) as well as noted drummer Dave Mattacks (known for his work with Fairport Convention and Richard & Linda Thompson). Also playing on the album are guitarist John Platania (whose credits include albums and tours with Taylor and Van Morrison), legendary Texas steel guitarist Lloyd Maines (who recently co-produced Home by The Dixie Chicks), guitarist Redd Volkaert (renowned for his work with Merle Haggard) and pianist Earl Poole Ball (who has played with and produced Johnny Cash).
Singing face to face in real time, Taylor and Rodriguez display a stunning vocal symmetry that in this newfound partnership nonetheless feels as instinctive and interwoven as a strand of DNA. And as the album's title alludes, they apply their potent dynamism and unity to a journey through the deep, sometimes mysterious and profound realm of the proverbial human heart.
Taylor, who hails from Yonkers, NY, was first captivated by music when a physical sensation came over him while seeing "My Wild Irish Rose" on Broadway at the age of eight years old. During his junior year in high school, his band The Town and Country Brothers was the first white act signed to King Records, and soon after, as a solo artist, Chip had his first hit single, "Me As I Am" on Warner Bros. Records. In the years that followed, Taylor made his considerable mark as a professional songwriter as well as a pioneering country-rock recording artist and record producer. Best known for writing such classics as "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning," among many others, he has enjoyed scores of covers over the years by such diverse artists as Frank Sinatra, The Pretenders, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Fats Domino, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Linda Ronstadt, Ike & Tina Turner and Shaggy, to name just a few. By the 1980s, Taylor had left music behind to concentrate on his alternate career as a successful professional gambler. When his mother fell ill in 1995, Taylor picked up the guitar again to sing for her - his biggest fan. The experience renewed his love of making music and he set aside gambling to begin performing, writing and recording again to considerable critical acclaim in America and Europe.
Rodriguez was also musically inspired at an early age when, at five years old, she heard Itzhak Perlman and became enchanted with the violin. The daughter of noted Texas singer-songwriter David Rodriguez and visual artist Katy Nail, she was concertmaster with the Austin Youth Symphony during her teen year while also appearing as a soloist with the Austin Civic Orchestra and winning all region and all state honors as a violinist and concertmaster. She studied violin at Oberlin Conservatory before transferring to Berklee College of Music, where she graduated magna cum laude. While at Berklee, Rodriguez was invited by Lyle Lovett to join him onstage at a Boston show to play on her father's song "The Ballad of the Snow Leopard," which Lovett recorded on his Step Inside This House CD and was written for Carrie's mother. After coming off stage from such an inspiring performance, Rodriguez said to herself, "This is what I want to do with my life."
Taylor happened to hear Rodriguez playing fiddle with alternative country artist Hayseed during the 2001 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, and, impressed by her talent and presence, he asked her to accompany him on some subsequent Texas shows and then join him on a European tour. At the time, Rodriguez told Taylor that she didn't sing.
But worried that she might not get the gig, she added, "I'll try to sing a little background if you want me too." After she sang harmonies for a few nights in Holland, Taylor coaxed Rodriguez to duet with him on a song he co-wrote years before, "Storybook Children" (which in 1967 was recorded by co-writer Billy Vera & Judy Clay to become the first hit song by an interracial couple). When she stepped up to the microphone and began to sing, the audience went wild with applause.
"It was like a 'Rocky' movie," recalls Taylor. "In all my years, I've never seen an audience go nuts like that." He began featuring Rodriguez on harmony and duet vocals and was inspired to write new songs for them to sing as a duo. The end result was a new creative partnership that resulted in Let's Leave This Town, further American and European tours, and now The Trouble with Humans.
"It's a true collaboration," notes Taylor. "I look at it as a real, honest-to-God duo. It's not like I'm the old professor back to teach everybody some tricks. And it's wonderful to see somebody who never dreamed of this all of a sudden blossom." And blossom she has. As her hometown Austin American-Statesman notes, "She's The Dixie Chicks all wrapped up in one, with the looks/chops package of Martie Maguire and Emily Robison and Natalie Maines' clear and sassy vocals."
For Rodriguez, whose ambition before meeting Taylor was to hopefully find satisfying work as a musician in a band, her flourishing talents and artistic accomplishments are a delightful surprise. "I haven't even had time to think about it enough to let it all sink in," she says. "It's real exciting. It's like a chance meeting that completely changed the whole direction that I was going in, and in such a great way. I don't think it even would have occurred to me to do any of this."
The joy and inspiration Taylor & Rodriguez feel in their partnership is palpable on The Trouble with Humans. And by the end of the dozen songs, even the most hard-hearted listener will no doubt, to quote Taylor, "come up shining."
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