CD review: Carrie Rodriguez 'Give Me All You Got'

Produced by Lee Townsend, who also has worked with Bill Frisell and Loudon Wainwright III, the follow-up to her celebrated 2010 covers collection “Love and Circumstance” boasts an appealingly live and loose vibe that stays constant even as she experiments with different musical styles.

Known for a voice as warm and sweet as cinnamon toast, Rodriguez lights a fire in her vocals and fiddling with the first track, “Devil in Mind,” a slow-burn roots rocker that warrants an instrumental reprise. Along with the opener, she co-wrote the melancholy shuffle “Sad Joy” with her mentor Chip Taylor. The “Angel of the Morning” songwriter also penned two tracks for Rodriguez: the electric blues-rocker “I Cry for Love” and the gut-check breakup ode “Cut Me Now,” an album highlight.

There's more pain couched in beauty on the folky “Whiskey Runs Thicker Than Blood,” but the perkily old-fashioned ballad “Lake Harriet” gives the proceedings a fun country swing.

Rodriguez co-wrote three tracks with fellow singer/songsmith/musician Luke Jacobs: the smoky lounge number “Tragic,” the old-school country duet “I Don't Mind Waiting” and the playful, poppy rumination “Brooklyn,” about her decision to move back to Austin after a decade of living in New York.

Jacobs will join Rodriguez Sunday when she plays an album release show at the Blue Door. For more information, call 524-0738 or go to www.bluedoorokc.com.

— Brandy McDonnell