Her father is Texas folkie David Rodriguez, her grandmother memoirist/essayist Frances Nail, and talented songstress Carrie Rodriguez seems to have inherited the talents of both. She plays fiddle, mandobird (a solid body electric mandolin) and tenor guitar, has sweetly twangy vocals, and fills out a repertoire of original roots rock and alt country odes (as frequently co-written by Chip Taylor) with re-imagined covers of songs like M. Ward's gently lovely "Eyes on the Prize" and "I Started Loving You Again," a duet by Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens.
— Leilani Polk