Carrie Rodriguez Fiddles Her Way To Center Stage

Austin, Tex. singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez started out playing classical violin as a child. But though she went on to the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, the fiddle called her. She left Oberlin to study fiddling at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

As Rodriguez told Here & Now's Robin Young, "The first half of the year, I spent a lot more time listening to Hank Williams recordings in my dorm room than practicing my Tchaikovsky."

Then family friend Lyle Lovett asked her to sit in on a sound check before one of his concerts, and though she says she was terrible, "I came home to my dorm that night and said 'you know what? I want to play like his fiddle player, that's what I want to do with my life.'"

Songwriter Chip Taylor asked Rodriguez to join his tour, after seeing her perform at South by Southwest. Rodriguez has also toured with Jeff Bridges and Bill Frisell.

She's just released a new album "Give Me All You've Got" and joins us in the studio to perform a couple of the songs from the CD with guitarist and vocalist Luke Jacobs.

Carrie Rodriguez & Luke Jacobs perform in the Here & Now studios