Album: Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez

Live From the Ruhr Triennale (Train Wreck)

Recorded two years ago at a German festival, this live album captures celebrated songwriter Chip Taylor and his fiddling foil Carrie Rodriguez on great form, with a band that features omni-talented guitarist Bill Frisell and pedal-steel player Greg Leisz.

A handful of covers Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again", Johnny Cash's "Big River" and a wonderfully mournful reading of the classic death ballad "Long Black Veil" stake out Taylor's current country territory, while his own "The Real Thing" harks back to a Fifties youth in thrall to the new rock'n'roll, when he knew his addiction couldn't be satisfied by the ersatz sounds of The Crew-Cuts and Pat Boone, but had to be fed by the authentic black R&B, represented here by a cover of Chuck Berry's "Maybellene". Rodriguez excels on her arrangements of "Elzick's Farewell", before Taylor's best-known songs, "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing", draw matters to a satisfied close.

Download this: 'The Real Thing', 'Long Black Veil', 'Wild Thing', 'Maybellene'