Love And Circumstance (Ninth Street Opus, 2010)
Carrie Rodriguez
Reviewed by Don Armstrong
Rodriguez has long been the beneficiary of the input of skillful, if lesser-known, elder statesmen - first the witty Taylor, a songwriting legend, and here the studio aces Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz and Buddy Miller. She's also got a degree from Berklee College of Music and, more importantly, big talent. If this release is any indication, what's missing is a clear sense of who she is.
The sad indication is that she's nothing more than another of the Norah Jones clones. Best evidence: the inclusion of a Hank Williams cover. But where Jones improbably outdid Hank on Cold Cold Heart in her landmark debut album, Rodriguez adds even less to I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry than one might have expected. Under the tutelage of Taylor, who persuaded Rodriguez to sing after hearing her play the fiddle - go figure - she bristled with energy. On "Love and Circumstance," she's virtually somnambulant. Call it Jones Lite.
The problem starts with the song selection - a passel of middling numbers about love (Steal Your Love, I Made a Lover's Prayer) and others recorded 20 times too often (I'm So Lonesome, Today I Started Loving You Again). Even one in Spanish, La Punalada Trapera, falls flat.
CDs by Carrie Rodriguez





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