Musical duo transcends time, style Taylor, Rodriguez team up

They are more than 35 years apart in age, but they are kindred souls musically.

Chip Taylor, who at 64 has enjoyed a meandering journey through the music industry for more than 40 years, has enjoyed teaming with Carrie Rodriguez, 26, for the past four years. The pair play at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at the Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor, another Austin-Acadia Connection concert.

“I got this chill when she’d sing harmony,” said Taylor from a tour stop in Denver. “This is something I couldn’t dream of. It’s taken my life to another level musically.”

Rodriguez returned the compliment, saying, “It feels like one of those things that was meant to be. It’s been this incredible learning experience. It opened up my world to this new understanding of music.”

Rodriguez has the chops musically to hold her own with a musical legend such as Taylor, a musician who has long been ahead of his time and the writer of such diverse songs as “Angel of the Morning” and “Wild Thing.”

She grew up in Texas in a musical family. Her father is singer-songwriter David Rodriguez, her mother a classical and opera buff. She was classically trained on violin at first Oberlin Conservatory of Music, then later at Berklee College of Music. She also played with her father and others at Austin clubs, recorded with Old Town native Patty Griffin and performed live with Lyle Lovett.

Rodriguez and Taylor hooked up at the 2001 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin.

“She came to one of my shows, and that’s when I met her for the first time,” he recalled. “At the time, it was just another guitarist [John Platania] and myself, and I’d been thinking of adding to that. I thought it would be great to have her join us.”

Rodriguez came aboard for some Texas shows, then continued on to Europe. Before long, Taylor had another idea, to have the former instrumentalist step to the mike and sing.

“I was pretty much against that,” she said. “It was harmony singing at first, but it was pretty scary when he got me to do a duet. I didn’t have the confidence. It took a good year to get rid of the shaky knees.”

The pair bonded with each other fairly quickly.

“We’ve let our emotions out with each other,” Taylor said. “When you do that, you become closer.”

Singing with the duet partner is but the latest phase of Taylor’s fascinating life.

Born James Wesley Voight, he was the third son of a pro golfer father and schoolteacher mother. One brother, Jon, is an acclaimed actor, the other, Barry, is a noted geologist.

Taylor grew up absorbed with music, although he did pursue a pro golf career until a wrist injury derailed that (the Chip comes from his golf short game). He became the only white act on the influential black label King Records, then went on to become a successful songwriter, whose other hits include the Janis Joplin anthem “Try (Just a Little Harder)” and “I Can’t Let Go” (covered by The Hollies and Linda Ronstadt).”

He was a pioneer of the alt-country movement, and his album “Last Chance” was acclaimed by Rolling Stone as one of the best country albums of 1973. Yet his clashes with the staid Nashville music establishment led him to switch from music to gambling throughout the 1980s.

“In the late ’70s, I was having run-ins with the record companies, because I didn’t want to play by their rules,” Taylor explained. “Besides, more than 50 percent of [his decision to leave music] was my addiction to gambling.”

Since his teens, he had been placing daily bets at horse-racing tracks. He went on to become a successful horse handicapper and a professional blackjack player who was eventually banned from the Atlantic City casinos because of his card-counting prowess.

In 1995, during his mother’s battle with the cancer that would eventually claim her life, he began playing his songs for her, and he realized how much he missed music. He cut six more albums before hooking up with Rodriguez, and they’ve recorded two more together.

Their latest album, “Red Dog Tracks,” is due out from Train Wreck Records this month.

“I’m kind of a vibe person in terms of writing and putting stuff on tape,” Taylor said. “I’m looking for emotion rather than perfection. I’m trying to get a real good emotional experience with the body of songs that we have.”

Although he’s written songs that have endured through decades, Taylor isn’t one to look back.

“It’s ‘what am I going to do tomorrow?,’ ” he said. “I love doing this new stuff, but I’m already starting to prepare for the future, getting songs together for Carrie’s solo album. It’s great to be able to wake up in the morning and create.”

Tickets are $20 – children 12 and under are free – and are available at Grasshopper Shops in Bangor and Ellsworth and at Music Bar in Bar Harbor. People may bring their own snacks and beer and wine. For more information, call 288-4365 or 288-4740.