Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez

Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez

Red Dog Tracks (EMI)

This is the cycle you hope for: a stellar debut album matched by an equally radiant second effort bookended by a third volume that promises more of the same. Red Dog Tracks continues Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez on their lovingly worn path of genre-bending roots rock without hesitation. The 13 tunes are nearly all penned by master composer Taylor, yet the occasional cover is fitting (Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love With You"), both in tradition and emotion. Opening with "Must Be the Whiskey," Taylor and Rodriguez blend their voices beautifully, the hallmark of their distinctive duets since the first LP. Red Dog is rife with poetic sentiments that walk a reed-thin line between folk and alt.country, Rodriguez augmenting Taylor's ever-wonderful compositions on "Once Again, One Day ... Will You Be Mine." The yearning ache of her fiddle carries the instrumental "Elzick's Farewell" straight into the soul, while the presence of guitar wizard Bill Frisell adds subtle punctuation. Red Dog's rustic romance is poignant, bittersweet, and as sweetly old-fashioned as a frosty glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. (Shady Grove, Thursday, June 2)