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Let's Leave This Town Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez Texas Music Group, 2002
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Reviewed by Mark Gallo
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Let's Leave This Town is a delight of the first order. Veteran songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Chip Taylor and young singer/fiddler Carrie Rodriguez are the most intriguing new duo to tickle these ears since I first heard Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris 30 years ago. As a singer, Taylor has a sound somewhere between John Prine and Willie Nelson. Austin-native Rodriguez was trained at Oberlin and Berklee and was discovered by Taylor at Austin's South by Southwest festival last year. It took some coaxing to get her to sing in public. Fortunately, Taylor was tenacious in the coaxing. Carrie Luz Rodriguez is as impressive a vocalist as a fiddler; which is to say she's a complete knockout. Together Taylor and Rodriguez are magic. Chip Taylor was born James Wesley Voight and is the brother of actor Jon Voight. Among the classics that have sprung from Taylor's pen are "Wild Thing," "Angel of the Morning," (a hit for three bands in three decades) "I Can't Let Go" (Hollies) and "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" (Janis Joplin). He has also produced a lot of folks along the way, including James Taylor (whom he "discovered") and Neil Diamond. Eight of the 10 songs collected here are Taylor's. The others are traditional. All are exemplary. Opening with the very Prine-ish "Sweet Tequila Blues," benefiting from a superb performance to match equally stellar songwriting, the die is cast. "Extra," ("Do I wanna? Yes I do/I got one. I want two. Give me something extra tonight"), sung wonderfully by Rodriguez, has an almost 1920s ukulele beat and sports hot guitar and fiddle solos. "There's a Hole in the Midnight," by contrast, has an almost Kris Kristofferson feel. The title cut ("I don't want your promise in the dark/stuff you wanna dream/that you just don't mean") is thick with the promise of love found, or at least world-weary kinship. "Storybook Children" is a take on interracial relationships that was ahead of it's time when co-author Billy Vera and Judy Clay cut it in 1968. For some more contrast, Chip and Carrie come back with "Do Your Part," an environmentally friendly ditty that reminds me a bit of fellow Texan Toni Price. "Say Little Darlin'" lets Rodriguez cut loose with the Texas fiddle on a fiery traditional number. It's unfathomable that this woman didn't think she could sing well enough to step up front. She's as natural as it gets. Taylor's way with words is perhaps nowhere more impressive than on "You Are Danger." When he and Rodriguez sing, "If they want us to go, then we'll just go/I'm not gonna suck up to them/I'm their bitch on the run/and I don't need no gun/I got ways I can shoot right through them," the imagery floods through the speakers: black and white and fearsome shades. Springsteen sings of "tramps like us" being born to run. Taylor writes, "We were born to rock this town/and rock this town we will/baby don't let it get you down, don't you fall, don't you fall/with your back against the wall." That's some serious songwriting. Musical support is lent by John McGann (guitar, mandolin), Jim Whitney (upright bass), Dave Mattacks (drums, ex of Fairport Convention), John Platania (guitar, ex of Van Morrison), Seth Farber (organ) and Javier Vercher (saxophone). Small string sections appear on a few tunes, as well. The support is solid and exceptionally well done, but the presence of the two principals is so pervasive as to make their cohorts sometimes almost invisible. This is a monumental piece of music and is simply one of the best albums of 2002. | November 2002
Mark Gallo is a long-time freelance music journalist whose byline has appeared in over 30 publications in the past 25 years. He has also been a DJ, publicist and archivist/researcher. When not writing about music he is a social worker |
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