Customer Reviews

The Trouble With Humans

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't listened to music radio in over twenty years. Why would I? No station here in Chicago is playing anything like this. Occasionally you might get something out of NPR, but overall it's a wasteland. So once again I thank John Conquest of 3rd Coast Music for bringing this to my attention. This is unbelievably beautiful music. As usual I noticed the uptempo songs first but it's the ballads that are extraordinary. I can't stop playing this. I was fortunate enough to see Chip and Carrie live last night at Fitzgeralds and I am so glad I went.(I live an hour and a half away) Chip Taylor said that he'd been out of the music business for over six years.. we are very lucky he's back. When he and Carrie are singing together it's just heavenly. And Carrie... for someone that isn't all that big she can really sing! Listen to 'Memphis, Texas' and tell me there's a finer voice anywhere. This is what it's all about.

I thought Chip and Carrie's last album, "Let's Leave This Town", was one of the best things I've heard in a long time, so I had very high expectations on this follow-up. It is different - so it may take a while to get used to - but in the end it is just as great as their debut. The sound is softer and more varied this time around and there are more great ballads, like the beautiful "Memphis, Texas" or the tender "We Come Up Shining". On the rowdy side we have "All The Rain" and "Laredo" which are fine, but even better live. (I saw them perform in a café in Malmo, Sweden a few weeks back and they were fantastic! Can't wait to see them again). My favorite songs on this record, however, are the more laid-back, mid-tempo songs, like the opener "Don't Speak In English", the outstanding hard country song "Dirty Little Texas Story" and the smooth "Curves and Things". Chip is a great songwriter (Carrie also helps out on 3 tracks) and I can't get enough of miss Rodriguez' unique, wonderful voice. I only wish she would play some more of that great "Texas fiddle" on this record. I would have liked another "Sweet Tequila Blues" (a masterpiece from their first CD) in there somewhere, but I guess they wanted to do something a bit different, and that's fine too. I just hope they make more albums together. Or why not record a live show. Go see them, they are simply magic!

I once saw John Prine's best lyrics described as somehow sneaking in the back door of the mind and staying there, teasing you with meanings. That's how this team's music feels, but without Prine's sardonic edge. Lyrics like "some words should fall on the air like silence" are only part of the reason. You couldn't find two more different voices (I won't even add "that stay in key" because Taylor doesn't always; with his gruff, aging voice it hardly matters). They play this music with their voices, from their hearts. Her perfect voice and delivery combine with his rough edges to somehow amplify everything good about these mostly simple tunes, with their mostly not-so-simple lyrics. On a second or third hearing I got pulled into the music with a feeling like I was sharing something very personal. Not just listening to a couple of very original artists but actually sharing something with them that went deep into emotional territory. I wish I knew how they do that. I hope this unlikely duo is far from done exploring their potential together. They seem to just keep getting better.

What a great album. I love the ballads -- so wistful and achingly beautiful. The up-tempo pieces are also terrific. The editorial review likened Chip to Billy Joe Shaver, but I'd say the writing reminds me of Tom Russell. (OK-Tom has a prettier voice!) Carrie was likened to Lucinda Williams, but you can throw Emmy Lou Harris into the mix as well. If you have a collection of Americana music and/or music with the Texas sound, I'd recommend this highly.

Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez have made four albums and they get better with each. This is the second. Chip writes most of the songs, sings lead, and plays guitar and harmonica. Carrie joins in the singing with a twang that would curl a tuning fork -- think about Iris Dement -- and plays a mean violin.

Chip and Carrie don't sing together as much as they take turns with verses and choruses. Their songs are literate and kind of a mixture of folk and country -- with a cello joining in on several tracks to add an additional touch of class to an already classy act. They've achieved a sound that's not quite like anybody else.

All the twelve songs on this CD are good -- and a 13th playful tune is hidden at the end as a bonus. I especially like the uptempo "Curves and Things" and the rollicking "Laredo" and lines like "she gets that feelin' in her jeans...and what's hers is his." This is good sounding music that's smart and complex enough to listen to over and over.

Smallchief

I`ve owned this album for a couple of years now, and it still grows on me. Which one is the best of Chip and Carrie`s three previously released duet-albums, is mostly a matter of taste. All of them are good! But for me "The Trouble With Humans" has grown to be the strongest listening experience. Both the tunes and lyrics are great, and there are a warm and deep sound image which brings you closer into the music.

Chip and Carrie`s voices blend also well into each other, and creates beautiful harmonies in a kind of raw and unpolished way. In my opinion this album stands close to the best duet-albums ever published in the genre of alternative country and folkrock (other gems could be: Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris in GP/Grevious Angel, Richard & Linda Thompson in Shoot Out The Lights, Gene Clark & Carla Olson in So Rebellious A Lover, and not to forget last years collaboration between rock-legend Robert Plant and bluegrass-queen Alison Krauss - Raising Sand). Finally, the songs on this Chip and Carrie-album are over all good, so I think it would be unnecessary to comment each and every one of them here. Listen yourself and make up your own mind...

I've been following Chip since "Big River" in the early seventies. And after his long hiatus he's finally back; it started with "The living room tapes" and just keeps getting better than ever. His teaming up with Carrie has been nothing but phenomenal! and "The trouble with humans" fits right in there with their other work. His songwriting, their singing and musicianship, and the help of all the other great people contributing on this project is just outstanding. I love him, and her, and them together!

I took a chance on this album, and I'm very glad I did. I bought it two weeks ago, listened to it for a week, and then picked up two more of their albums ('Angel of the Morning' [a live disc] & 'Red Dog Tracks') both of which - I think I can aver, from two days exposure - are as good as this one.

For those who are not aware (I wasn't until I listened to this, and did a little research) Chip Taylor has quite the career as a singer-songwriter (penned 'Angel of the Morning' - of Juice Newton/Merilee Rush fame, and 'Wild Thing' sung by - what was it - the Troggs?) interspaced with periods as a professional golfer & gambler (banned form Atlantic City).. Anyhow, we can all rejoice, because he's given up both frivolities, and thankfully returned to where he belongs, to song. (See ChurchoftheTrainWreckdotOrg, for the story straight from the man himself..)

Some few apparently dislike his voice - a West Texas breeze fluting sagegrass & cracked deadwood - a warm, sonorous country folk gravel, rent by an occasional crack or twang; reminiscent of Willie Nelson cut with Johnny Cash's lighter tones (and Chip does in fact do a mean Johnny imitation, check out the bonus track.) It's gently rough & musical, I dig it.

As for Carrie, she is sweet. That, in more ways than one. Her voice melds with Chip's like honey on peanut butter - she reminds me of a brasher Natalie Maines, only these guys' material is much better than the Dixie Chicks' (a band I've liked historically, because of their folk & bluegrass influences, but gone too pop-rock glitz for me these days..) Chip & Carrie, in contrast, are nothing but country-folk-bluegrass fusion. Eclectic, yet masterful. And Man oh Manoschevitz, do I love it.

Two of my favorite instruments are prominent here, Carrie's fiddle, and Chip's harmonica. Being a harp player myself, I've been jamming along with this album, which is *much* groovier than singing to it. Good times.. Yessir.

Songs. Couple honorable mentions: The first, and last ('hidden' - but not too deeply, thank goodness) tracks are simply super.. 'Don't Speak in English' & 'Find Me a Killer..' They name check Puff Diddy, Johnny Cash (inspiring Chip's Cash "Bridge Over Troubled Water" rendition,) John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, etc.. and include a snippet cover of Hank Sr.'s I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You..)

Chip on the MTV awards show: "Now Puff Diddy's the host, but Carrie, Diddy's doin' nothin' for me.. (Carrie interjects: "And this isn't my kinda music, really") ..but the girls sure look pretty, least that's the way it seems around here these days.."

Well, I'm with you on that first bit there, Chip. But I gotta say those hop hip mommas'll never touch Carrie..

Anyway, suddenly Chip's anomie verges into laconic (satiric?) revolt: "Oh me, ain't breakin' a sweat, gonna find me a killer, get me a contract and shoot out the TV set.." Heh heh. Since mercy killing is against the law, they unfortunately can't advocate capping P Diddy & the rest of those obnoxious nihilists.. So Chip & Carrie take a rhetorical 12-gauge to the major media & music industry. Pump a couple buckshot into your radio, then listen to these guys, instead.

Live the folk. Music of, by and for the people. Take that Clear Channel!

Anyway: Check this one out, I doubt you'll regret it.

Staying with the theme of how country music could be, here's a favourite record by Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez. Taylor is a singer-songwriter who emerged as a writer of hit songs in the 60s ('Angel of the Morning' and 'Wild Thing,' for example). Although he was born and grew up in New York, he had a strong predilection for country music from an early age, and that's where he has now returned. Taylor met Carrie Rodriguez, an Oberlin and Berklee College of Music trained singer/songwriter/fiddler, during an in-store performance she gave at the South by Southwest Music Festival in 2001. The two now perform as a duo. Four albums and an EP into their journey together, their music is a low-key, intelligent kind of country/folk - not entirely dissimilar to, say, the Texas singer/songwriter Townes van Zandt. Anchored by Taylor's strong rhythm guitar and harmonica and Rodriguez' fiddle, the songs feature insightful lyrics and a kind of "old time country" feel. They also couldn't be further removed from the Carrie Underwoods and Jessica Simpsons that seem to pass for country music today. Taylor and Rodriguez have perfectly matching voices - hers a strong cowgirl soprano with a Texas drawl, his a refined baritone with occasional carelessly slurred syllables and frequent moments where he speaks more than he sings. The lyrics are precise and emotionally spot-on throughout - this is material that's carefully thought out, written to be performed by these two performers, meant to showcase their unique abilities. The Trouble With Humans is a beautiful record about grown-up relationships whose words often manage to encapsulate a core truth in the simplest way possible, yet in a way that we've never heard before. 'Curves and Things' and the title track should be prescribed material in English class, they're so good.

I really liked this CD - the down home, sitting on the porch style brings back childhood memories of a simpler time when the best entertainment around dusty little towns was a weekend jam.
Those of us lucky enough to be raised in the country towns of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana or Mississippi will be transported back there.
The quality is good but still raw enough to make you feel like you are sitting beside the musicians and the duets from Chip and Carrie aren't harmonized to the point of overproduced pop.
Buy it and find a country back road to roll down - windows open...