Austin, Texas fiddle player/ singer Carrie Rodriguez is enjoying being out of the sweltering Austin heat for the summer.
“It’s great the rest of the year, but it’s just not a place to be in the summer. It’s terrible now. Yesterday we played a little lodge in front of a glacial lake in Red Fish, Idaho,” she laughed in the middle of a tour of a variety of Rocky Mountain towns, which will bring her to The Geomatic Attic, June 16.
She last played Lethbridge about two years ago at the Geomatic Attic.
“On the day of our gig we went hiking for a couple hours in that park in the coulee. (Indian Battle Park) We were all in great spirits, because it’s beautiful,” she said.
“ So far my favourite part of the tour has been Red Fish,” she said adding she just returned from Europe.
She is enjoys Lethbridge’s unique landscape.
“I like it. It’s a different type of landscape, like something from outer space,” she said.
“It’s been nice, a lot of fun,” she said. She is joined by her full band on this tour— guitarist and steel guitarist Luke Jacobs, drummer Ryan Lovian and bassist Kyle Kegerreis. She plays guitar, tenor guitar and a Mandobird, (an electric mandolin shaped like a Gibson Firebird guitar) and of course fiddle.
“We’re all in great spirits,” she said.
“It’s been a beautiful time.”
Rodriguez, who got her big break as a fiddle player fro songwriter Chip Taylor (who wrote “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning” plus a plethora of country hits), is touring in support of a new CD to be released in January called “Give Me All You Got”. She took a break from working with Chip Taylor, but co-wrote a lot of the new songs with him.
“He hired me to play fiddle in his band, then got me to sing and I had never sung before,” she said.
She also co-wrote songs for the new album with Gary Louris from the Jayhawks, Dan Wilson and her guitarist Luke Jacobs.
She is glad to work with Chip Taylor again.
“It was a great experience. There is just something that I respond to,” she said.
““I’ve grown quite a bit, so that’s what I brought to the table this time,” she said.
Her band will not only be playing new songs, but alternate arrangements of older songs.
“We’ve got a lot of different arrangements, so they sound fresh, ” she said.
“We change the arrangements, that‘s how we keep it interesting and that‘s good for me,” she continued.
Her last CDs were collections of covers — a duets CD with Ben Kyle of Minneapolis band Romantica and “We Still Love Our Country” were CDs of different arrangements of cover songs by songwriters like John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Merle Haggard and Lucinda Williams. Her next one will be all original.
“I’m just working on the liner notes now,” she said.
She is eagerly anticipating her Lethbridge show.
“It is Ryan and Luke’s first time here so make sure y’all welcome them ,” she said.
Tickets for the show cost $37.50. It will begin at 8 p.m.
