Carrie Rodriguez

She started playing violin when she was still a tiny girl and the minute she graduated from college, she was out on the road. Carrie Rodriguez was almost destined to be a performer. The fiddler/singer/songwriter has overcome her initial trepidation about making her life in the center stage spotlight and embraced her destiny as an alt-country up-and-comer. Discovered by Chip Taylor playing fiddle at SWSX on her home turf of Austin, TX, Rodriguez is now out on her own and out with a new CD, “She Ain’t Me.” The rising American star stopped by Folk Alley’s studios in Kent, Ohio, a mere skip and a jump away from Oberlin College, where Rodriguez spent a year before running away from Ohio’s mean lake-effect snow. She ended up at Berklee College in Boston where she roomed with Casey Driessen and worked to develop her fiddling skills. After graduation, she was “discovered” by Chip Taylor while performing in Austin, Texas during the South By Southwest music festival and collaborated and toured with Taylor before striking out on her own, focusing on working in a sound that draws from alt-country, bluegrass, and jazz sounds to compliment her intimate and engaging vocals.