Carrie Rodriguez & Ben Kyle - We Still Love Our Country

Last year, Austin singer/songwriter and fiddler extraordinaire Carrie Rodriguez partnered with the frontman for Minneapolis' Americana band Romantica Ben Kyle to create the eight-track mini-album We Still Love Our Country, arriving February 1 on Ninth St. Opus. Of course when the pair refer to "country", they're not referring to the tepid Nashville brand of slick and maudlin twang-pop. No surprise that six of the project's eight songs are covers from the likes of alt-country pioneers the likes of Townes van Zant, John Prine and longtime Rodriguez mentor Chip Taylor. The duo also make a bold move in covering Boudleaux Bryant's classic "Love Hurts", a song that became a legendary signature stroke for Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

"['Love Hurts'] seems a bit wildly ambitious in that Gram and Emmy Lou recorded a 'duet for the ages', that I can't imagine ever being surpassed in feeling and delivery." Ben admits, "but Gram and Emmy were a deep inspiration for this project and so you could say we chose this song as an acknowledgment or a sort of homage to them." Lead track "Fire Alarm", one of two non-covers in the track listing, is a toe-tapping sing-a-long that deftfully takes the pair's vocal trade-offs into sweet and subtle harmonizing territory. Our favorite, though, is "If I Needed You", a Townes Van Zandt standard that quietly revels in it's own simple elegance. PS: Look for new albums in 2011 from both Rodriguez and Kyle's Romantica.

Carrie Rodriguez Site  Ben Kyle Site

Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle - "Fire Alarm" (from We Still Love Our Country)

Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle - "If I Needed You" (from We Still Love Our Country)