Carrie Rodriguez
| Carrie Rodriguez | |
|---|---|
Carrie performing at Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Carrie Luz Rodriguez |
| Born |
July 31, 1978 Austin, Texas |
| Genres | Country |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, fiddle, mandobird, guitar |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Ninth Street Opus |
| Website | carrierodriguez |
Carrie Luz Rodriguez (born July 31, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and the daughter of Texan singer-songwriter David Rodriguez and Texas painter Katy Nail, and is the granddaughter of prolific Texas essayist Frances Nail. She sings and plays the fiddle, mandobird and tenor guitar.
Her touring band members include Luke Jacobs (acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, lap steel guitar, pedal steel), Hans Holzen (acoustic and electric guitar, vocal, lap steel guitar, mandolin), Erik Deutsch (keyboards), Kyle Kegerreis (acoustic and electric bass), and Don Heffington (drums, percussion).
Rodriguez started taking Suzuki Violin Lessons at her public elementary school at age 5. Her teacher, Bill Dick, remained her principal violin teacher until she left Austin at age 17 to begin music conservatory. When asked why she chose to learn Violin at such a young age, she admits "I was really bad at nap-time. I would talk through the whole thing. And I already had a parent/teacher conference about it. I remember getting up to go to the bathroom and walking down the hall during nap-time and hearing the little squawky beginner violin playing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' And I just remember thinking, 'Oh, man, this is what I should be doing. Not laying in there bored.'"
She was awarded a scholarship to Oberlin Conservatory and studied under Roland and Almita Vamos for one year (1996). Her father, David Rodriguez, took her on tour with him in Europe when she was a teen, and after sitting through a sound check with her dad’s old friend Lyle Lovett, she decided to leave Oberlin and set herself on course to become a fiddler at the Berklee College of Music under the tutelage of renowned fiddler, Matt Glaser, graduating in 2000. There, her teacher, Matt Glaser, and her fellow students, including roommate Casey Driessen, helped her “find my groove and let go of that wall I had put up as a classical player.”
In 2001 Chip Taylor asked Rodriguez to join his European tour after seeing her play with the band Hayseed during SXSW, which featured a showcase of artists of Hispanic ancestry. The list of performers was narrow in focus but inspired: Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, Linda Ronstadt, Gloria Estefan, Jose Feliciano, and Carrie Rodriguez. TODO Austin called her the outlier, who was running "on the strength of a career only a decade old, [but] already so highly regarded that she’s not only captured the heart of Americana music aficionados but infused the Latino community with a singular dose of Ameri-Chicana pride."
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