Plenty of singers from the South have made the trek to New York looking for a fresh start or, at best, a chance to be the next big thing. Now it’s Patricia Vonne Rodriguez’s turn. Born in San Antonio of Tex-Mex and Spanish stock, some hefty artistic genes — her brother Robert gave us El Mariachi and the Spy Kids flicks — have always churned within her. Her original plan was to move north for a dancing career, but after scoring a gig singing backup in some downtown clubs, she began writing songs and formed a band in 1998. Eventually, Vonne (who dropped her last name) figured she just didn’t fit into the New York scene. As she’s now based in Austin, her self-titled debut covers the gamut of rootsy Texas music, with countrified twang sharing space with your basic Armadillo World Headquarters slide-guitar sensibility, not to mention a couple of flawless forays into Spanish. Though the purity of Vonne’s voice sometimes seems out of place when fighting against raunchy roadhouse riffs (as in the final track, “Dead Eyes Shine”), husband and guitarist Robert LaRoche is there to save the day with harmonies that bring out her best. Vonne will be singing at an in-store performance at Cactus Music & Video at 3 p.m. the same day.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2003.