Rodriguez, touring in support of her Give Me All You Got album, informed a near-capacity audience that she felt the connection between her hometown of Austin and Berkeley since both her album producer Lee Townsend and Ninth Street Opus record label reside here.  Accompanied only by singer/songwriter/guitarist/steel player Luke Jacobs, she began with “Devil In Mind” and “Sad Joy,” both co-written with Chip Taylor as she wound through eight tracks from the album including Taylor’s “Cut Me Now,” and “I Cry For Love.”   Also in the mix was Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” and her own “Lake Harriet,”  “Whiskey Runs Thicker Than Blood,” and the title track from her 2006 album, “Seven Angels On A Bicycle.”  The set concluded with “I Don’t Mind Waiting,” a beautiful ballad written by Jacobs and Rodriguez.  As a fitting finale, the enthusiastic and knowledgeable audience was rewarded with her traditional encore, the incredibly gorgeous “La Punalada Trapera,” made famous some 75 years ago by her great aunt, Eva Garza, the renown Latina vocalist.

 – Scott Peavler 

Check out Scott’s review of Carrie Rodriguez’s new album in the next issue of Elmore Magazine, coming soon to a newsstand near you!