Carrie Rodriguez

After seeing Michelle Shocked make her Chico debut at the El Rey, where she teased longtime fans with her East Texas gems from days gone by, I found my appetite for Americana re-whetted. It’s fortuitous, then, that just a week later I came across Carrie Rodriguez and her recently released second album, She Ain’t Me. A family friend of Lyle Lovett who studied at both the Oberlin conservatory and the Berklee College of Music, Rodriguez has the chops of a violinist and the spirit of a fiddler. Her roots are undeniably rootsy, from the gentle twang in her vocals to the earthiness in her lyrics, yet she’s not bound by sounds of the genre. Perhaps even more than short, sharp Shocked, Rodriguez is like country-folk icon Lucinda Williams, for whom opened and with whom she’s played. But whatever the comparison, Rodriguez’s title-track title is a valid retort: “She Ain’t Me.” Go to www.carrierodriguez.com, pick up the disk and you’ll hear what I mean. You might even head out to Healdsburg to see her Oct. 16. (Who knows, maybe Bob Littell will book her in the Big Room for her Chico debut …)