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What a difference two years has made for singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez.

Compare her style and her sound from then, shortly after the release of her debut solo CD "Seven Angels on a Bicycle," to now.

On "She Ain't Me," the album she released in August, she shows off a bolder, more confident sound -- full, sassy and filled with up-tempo country-rockers that show off her skills on the fiddle and her exquisite vocals. Even the publicity photos from the "She Ain't Me" sessions are sexier and more glamorous -- the back cover of the album shows Rodriguez in a little black dress, showing off a little leg with hair teased provocatively.

That's a far cry from the casual slouch in a lawn chair, wearing a purple skirt and cowboy boots, that adorned the cover of "Seven Angels."

"There's quite a bit of me in those new pictures," Rodriguez told The Daily Times this week. "That photo shoot was so much fun, because I got to get a stylist, and she and I really clicked. We would go shopping together, and it was like getting to be a 5-year-old girl playing in your mother's closet. I've always been a very girly-girl, and I love shoes. Unfortunately, I didn't get to keep any of the shoes, but just to put on shoes that cost $900 feels so good!"

She laughs, a playful sound that, combined with the rest of her very talented package, makes grown men envious of her musician-husband. She comes across as fun and frivolous, and the songs on her new album connect on a level that raises the stakes from the introspective girl whose ethereal musings on "Seven Angels" resonated with quiet beauty.

"With this album, I was just kind of finding more confidence as I went along, and opening for Lucinda (Williams, with whom she performed in Knoxville in 2007) had a huge role in the progression from where I was on 'Seven Angels' to this new record," she said. "Playing for those big crowds and watching her did something for me. I gained more confidence on that tour than I did in a year of touring, and with my band starting to rock out more and not be afraid of it, that's the kind of sound that came out on the new record."

Born in Austin, Texas, Rodriguez is the daughter of acclaimed songwriter David Rodriguez. She got her start on the violin and seemed destined to pursue a career in classical music; she had been accepted at Ohio's Oberlin College Conservatory of Music when a fellow Texan changed her life.

The man was Lyle Lovett; a friend of her father's, he invited the young Rodriguez to sit in with his Large Band as they rehearsed before a show. Not long after, she transferred to the Berklee College of Music in Boston to focus on more contemporary music. She made friends with other roots-music players, and once again Lovett helped shape her career -- prior to a Boston performance, he asked Rodriguez to sit in and perform one of her father's songs, which Lovett had recorded for the CD "Step Inside This House." She fell in love with the stage, if not necessarily the spotlight, that night.

A few years later, she was performing in an Austin record shop during the annual South By Southwest showcase when Chip Taylor happened to stop by. Taylor, best known for writing the song "Wild Thing" (made famous in 1966 by The Troggs and a year later by Jimi Hendrix -- as well as in the comedy film "Major League"), asked her to join his band on the spot. That was 2001, and Rodriguez was a fresh-faced young thing straight out of college with no higher aspirations than simply playing music.

When Taylor first asked her to sing, she was terrified; gradually, however, she began to relax and come into her own. By the time "Seven Angels" was released, she had poured her heart out into the title track -- a song that sounded like it would fit right at home on Emmylou Harris's Daniel Lanois-produced "Wrecking Ball" album. It's a starkly beautiful song about a chaotic, free-frame moment in time -- the singer spots a bicyclist pedaling across the Brooklyn Bridge, watching and wondering about him as he disappears into traffic.

"'Seven Angels,' first of all, was made during a very traumatic time for me," she said. "I'd just lost my best friend, who was 25 years old, to a bicycle accident, so I was dealing with tragedy. Some of the songs were directly about that -- just trying to express all of those feelings that go along with losing someone -- and some of the other songs were sort of like an escape from that. I wasn't so much dealing with my own life.

"With the new album, I had a lot more time at home to think about things. My husband was on the road when I was working on 'She Ain't Me,' so I had a lot of time alone, and a lot of those songs are about figuring out how to be alone and dealing with that separation and figuring out how to come to terms with it. I think I revealed more about myself, and I wasn't afraid to do that."

It also marks a first for Rodriguez in stepping out of her comfort zone -- she opted to work with other songwriters besides Taylor and wound up writing with Dan Wilson of Semisonic, singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, former Son Volt player Jim Boquist and acclaimed Jayhawks founder Gary Louris.

"This whole record was a little bit agonizing in terms of getting over my big ears, and all of those things contributed to a bolder sound and stepping out a little bit more than I had before," she said. "With Gary, I basically showed up on his doorstep in Minneapolis with my fiddle and guitar, never having met him. The record label had set it up, and I just arrive and I'm at his house. When you're faced with something like that, if you can get over the initial awkwardness, those kinds of things can help you grow so much."

She needn't have worried. Within minutes of their introduction, she was sharing her songs with Louris, and the two hit it off splendidly.

"It was like we had known each other for years, and we were laughing and goofing off within the first hour of writing together," she said. "Gary wasn't afraid to show something to me that wasn't perfect. He would throw things out as they came, and he would make fun of himself. I learned that you can't self-edit too much in the beginning, that when those sparks come out, you have to let them come out and not stop the process."

Tonight, she'll work with another Americana legend -- singer-songwriter John Prine, who headlines their show at The Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. Again, her charm and glow and overall musical appeal won Prine over during two dates they shared together in November.

"It was a ball, just so much fun," she said. "John is so, so sweet and charming, and I'm a huge fan. Getting to do something like that, it's like -- wow. I can't believe I get paid to do this and actually get paid to listen to John Prine sing these classic songs. It's like a dream, and I'm so grateful for everything."