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SXSW review: Carrie Rodriguez
It never fails. Every year, like clockwork, some highly-regarded songwriter draws a late-night set on the last night of the SXSW music festival in an unsuitable venue and finds himself or herself contending with a few chowderheads who think Prohibition is coming back on the next train.
This year, one of the winners of that unhappy lottery was former homegirl Carrie Rodriguez, who was back in town to tout her new album of lovingly chosen cover songs, “Love and Circumstance,” with a midnight showcase on Saturday at the Amsterdam Cafe.
Make no mistake, I’m certain the Amsterdam Cafe is a fine establishment the other 51 weeks of the year. But someone rigged the temporary stage only about a foot off the ground, which meant that almost no one could see the petite Rodriguez and positioned the speakers at head height, which ensured that the sound broke up before it traveled more than a few feet.
Ah, well. If Rodriguez was frustrated at the production limitations or the folks who were throwing down cocktails with one hand and texting with the other while carrying on shouted conversations, she gave no indication.
And besides, she had volume on her side. She kicked off her set with a bristling, almost martial Celtic-flavored take on Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River To Cross,” from the new album. A siren-like slide guitar punctuated “50’s French Movie” from her first solo album of a couple of years back and her own quicksilver fiddle lit the spark under “Never Gonna Be Your Bride,” one of those breakneck breakdowns when everyone seemingly hits everything they can put their hands on.
Ben Kyle, of the Minneapolis band Romantica, joined her onstage for a duet of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” (a role essayed by Buddy Miller on the album version). “I Made A Lover’s Prayer,” a Gillian Welch cover, featured a rubbery guitar line and an ear-grabbing groove.
Wisely, given the circumstances, she didn’t essay the quieter material on the new album, like her take on Townes Van Zandt’s “Rex’s Blues.” More’s the pity, but lucky for us locals, Rodriguez returns to her old hometown on a regular basis. Go see her at the Cactus Cafe and then go have an after-show nightcap at the Amsterdam. Everyone goes home happy.
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