Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle - We Still Love Our Country

by Malcolm Carter

published: 28 / 9 / 2011

Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle - We Still Love Our Country

Label: Ninth Street Opus
Format: CD

Superb new duets album from Mexican-American singer-songwriter and fiddle player Carrie Rodriguez and Romantica front man Ben Kyle, which, consisting largely of well-known covers, takes each and reworks them in unique style

Review

Until her covers album, ‘Love and Circumstance’, released last year, Carrie Rodriguez was probably best known for the albums she cut with Chip Taylor. Taylor, writer of ‘Wild Thing’, ‘Angel of the Morning’ and many more songs that you know but didn’t realise he composed, seemed to bring out the best in Rodriguez. The fiddle player’s solo work until that covers album never seemed to reach the heights she scaled when working with Taylor. Recording the eight songs on ‘We Still Love Our Country’ with Romantica’s Ben Kyle has resulted in a smart move though. It’s been said many times before about duos, but when these two sing together they produce a natural, wonderful sound that makes you think that they were born to sing together. In time this short, but perfect, selection of six covers and two originals might well prove to be the highlight of Rodriguez’s career. It’s an inspired project, not just the two musicians getting together but the songs they’ve chosen to cover really are made for this duo. Closing the album with Boudleaux Bryant’s ‘Love Hurts’ is, of course, just shouting out for the Gram and Emmylou comparisons which were going to come their way if they covered that particular song or not. The fact is that while that much-covered song will forever now be Gram and Emmylou’s, the version here is every bit as heartbreaking as their take. It’s a song that seems to have been around all my life, from the Everly Brothers to Roy Orbison; from Nazareth to Jim Capaldi and all the other less successful versions it’s always been there. It would take a fool not to feel the emotion in Gram and Emmylou’s version and place it at the top of a very long list of those who have covered the song. But finally here’s another duo that have taken the song and made a version that is up there with the Gram and Emmylou cover. It’s simply breathtaking and worth the price of the album alone. There are a few duos around just now covering the same ground as Carrie and Ben; Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, She and Him and there is even a little Jenny and Johnny is in there, especially on the opening song, one of the two originals written by Ben Kyle, ‘Your Lonely Heart’, but there is always room for well-played, expertly produced (by the duo with Lee Townsend) Americana with pop flourishes and sung with feeling which is what we have here on ‘We Still Love Our Country’. The duo has been quite brave in the choice of covers. While ‘Love Hurts’ was a bold choice, it was almost an obvious song for them to add their own slant to. In choosing Townes Van Zandt’s ‘If I Needed You’ Rodriguez and Kyle were once again taking a well-known song that has been covered many times and which you could be forgiven for thinking that nothing more could be added to after all these years. But if their voices gelled so well on ‘Love Hurts’ then all one can say about their vocal performance on ‘If I Needed You’ is that it sounds like this song was written for them and this time they may have even bettered Emmylou’s version. Carrie’s fiddle takes the song places no other version has so far been; it really is an outstanding performance. It’s also no surprise to see Chip Taylor’s ‘Big Kiss’ make an appearance here, but what is surprising is that with Ben Kyle involved Carrie surpasses the version on her ‘Seven Angels on a Bicycle’ album. It’s a soulful cover and Ben Kyle’s vocals all but steal the show here. The John Prine and Robert Braddock penned ‘Unwed Fathers’ is another one of the duo’s selections that will be familiar to many music lovers and again Kyle’s vocals are excellent; Rodriguez, with both her solo work and the albums she cut with Chip Taylor, is already known as an outstanding vocalist, but Kyle will be a new name to those not familiar with his band Romantica so to hear such a talented vocalist for the first time, especially when singing with Rodriguez is a real treat. Hopefully this won’t be all we hear from the duo. The original song they wrote together, the jaunty ‘Fire Alarm’, shows that they can not only perform and produce this type of music like they were born to do so, but that they should write more original songs too. Eight songs, thirty minutes of pure Americana and not a wasted second. More please!