Seven Angels on a Bicycle Carrie Rodriquez
Abstract
Seven Angels On A Bicycle, the first solo album by Carrie Rodriguez, is an interesting, diverse and beautiful creation and is making her one of the most exciting new artists in Americana. While Seven Angels On A Bicycle contains enough range, honesty, musicianship, and uniqueness to make it a work of considerable significance, it also contains hooks, catchiness, and personality that will make it accessible to a wide audience. She has grouped together a slew of magicians to make this record, and if her live performance has anywhere near the sass and quirk she emits on this album, her shows are going to be a carnival. I can�t think of any better way to launch a career than with such a solid and creative album as Seven Angels, and I certainly hope Carrie Rodriguez will continue to make interesting and stimulating music for a long time.
Introduction
Carrie Rodriguez is fast becoming one of the major darlings of Americana, and not through Company hype or Corporately dictated airplay. Brought up in Austin, Texas, Carrie Rodriguez attended Oberlin College Conservatory of Music to study classical violin. As her interests evolved, perhaps catalyzed partly by playing fiddle with family friend Lyle Lovett when he was in Cleveland for a show, she transferred to Berklee College of Music where she studied more modern styles and graduated Magna Cum Laude. In 2001, legendary songwriter Chip Taylor caught Rodriguez playing with Hayseed at an in-store gig during SXSW and hired her to play fiddle in his band � a post that eventually expanded to singing. Rodriguez toured with Taylor and recorded with him on his recent album Let�s Leave This Town.
Though she has recorded with Chip Taylor and worked on Patti Griffin�s 1,000 Kisses, Seven Angels On A Bicycle is her first official solo album. Seven Angels is something of a joint effort with Chip Taylor; Carrie Rodriguez gives credit to Taylor for musical guidance on Seven Angels, and Taylor has written or co-written all but one song, played acoustic guitar and co-produced this album with her. Chip Taylor is an accomplished songwriter, writing songs for or covered by such varied artists as Jeff Beck, Emmylou Harris, The Cult, The Divinyls, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, The Hollies, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix & The Troggs, Juice Newton & Shaggy�
To play with her on Seven Angels she had recruited a somewhat eclectic group of musicians that, as it turns out, are perfectly suited to exercise her material and cultivate her sound.
Methods
Rodriguez and Taylor got Bill Frisell to play electric guitar (a deal that included drummer Kenny Wollesen and bassist Viktor Krauss (brother to Allison Krauss)) and Greg Leisz played pedal and lap steel guitar. She also convinced jazz saxophonist Javier Vercher to play on the album. Though this album sounds like an intricately produced collection of polished songs, it was actually recorded from live (in the studio) sets recorded at Avatar in Manhattan. This collaboration has made a unique and studied sound, a tribute to the sensitivity and interplay of the musicians and vision of Taylor and Rodriguez.
Results
Seven Angels has at least that many moods, as the dozen songs cover some diverse and intriguing territory: songs such as the title track, �Big Kiss� and �Got Your Name On It� are haunting, airy and emotive, while �Dirty Leather� moves to even darker places, and makes me think that maybe she�s seen more than just the gritty side of Austin; �Never Gonna Be Your Bride� is a sizzling, sassy and edgy romp that Rodriguez has fun with and though her words claim the answer would be in the negative, the naughtiness in her voice makes me want to ask anyway. In what are (only by comparison to the rest of this collection) more straightforward songs, ��50�s French Movie� sounds like a soundtrack to a movie I�d like to see, played during the scene where she gets wound up, pissed off and busts stuff up to the sounds of a gritty Texas bar band (I�m betting she gets her way next time); and �I Don�t Want To Play House Anymore� is as close to a traditional country song as Rodriguez is willing to produce. �St. Peter�s� is beautiful, dreamy song that moves like a river, slow and open leading around a curve where it picks up pace and changes scenery � another curve brings us back to a familiar glide.
Rodriguez is comfortable, loose and affective and uses her well-accented voice to great effect. Her Texas charms flirt and seduce in some places, get sassy and rowdy elsewhere, and otherwise love, mourn or pray as beautifully as any expression of pain, loss or longing can be. Many of the songs on Seven Angels are moody, nearly soundscapes rather than straight out �songs�, though she has some of those too. This is an album that I�ve had playing in my CD changer non-stop for a few days now. I was immediately addicted to it and haven�t been able to turn it off yet; the opening song �Seven Angels On A Bicycle� is one of the best songs I�ve heard in a long time. I have to admit that I�m completely smitten with Carrie Rodriguez.
This set of material shows some healthy diversity, and will likely attract the attention of a wide audience. I like it that I can�t immediately come up with other artists with which to compare her sound; While Rodriguez�s voice and music don�t necessarily remind me of her, that she hasn�t forced herself into a single sound � into a radio-ready genre – reminds me of Norah Jones� first album, and the moodiness on some of this album reminds me of Cowboy Junkies. But I�m really impressed that I can�t legitimately use comparisons to pin down the sound of this album. Though she is getting (and I suspect will continue to receive) some much-deserved attention, Carrie Rodriguez is not �the next�� anyone. I find her music to be moving, poignant, complex, subtle, ethereal and independently derived.
Conclusion
Seven Angels On A Bicycle is our official introduction to Carrie Rodriguez, who will likely be an important voice in music. To my taste, this intelligent, moody, sassy, groovy, dark, edgy, airy, sexy album is one of the finest albums I�ve heard in a long time. Seven Angels is profoundly enjoyable, interesting, unique and substantial and I suspect Carrie Rodriguez�s career will be the same.
Doc English (James J. English, PhD) has been an officer in the US Navy and worked with the USMC as a researcher in the field of Medical Entomology and Ecology and has been a faculty member and Director of the Environmental Research Center at the University of Notre Dame. He now does his thing in the foothills of the Appalachians at Gardner-Webb University. His professional research concentrates on studying mating behaviors, acoustic properties of mating calls and consequences of mate choice among animals that use acoustics as part of their mating ritual. It may not be coincidental that he also enjoys traditional styles of music, in particular the rich and varied sub-genres of Americana. Over the years he has been actively engaged in listening to, studying, writing about and creating music.
This show was upbeat and a lot of fun to be a part of. He played a few Mavericks songs along with some tunes off his new album “Lucky One” which is just my style. The whole vibe had a pulp fiction feel to it with all the ladies dancing which was pretty cool.