What can't she do?

As a fiddler, singer, songwriter, Carrie Rodriguez covers the bases

Austin, Texas-based singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez has earned praise from Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett. (Sarah Wilson)

Hailed by Lucinda Williams, recruited by Alejandro Escovedo, and nurtured by Lyle Lovett, singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez has rapidly emerged as one of the most compelling new voices on the roots-rock scene.

The Austin, Texas-raised fiddler recently released her second solo album, "She Ain't Me" (Manhattan), which captures a prodigiously talented musician in the process of forging a sound that's unapologetically tough and intriguingly sensual.

In the words of Williams, who invited Rodriguez to tour with her last year as an opening act, there's "a certain wisdom in her, and yet a sense of wonder as well." Rodriguez headlines a triple bill at Berklee's Cafe 939 tonight with singer-songwriters Mark Erelli and Maria DeMaio, and opens the main stage at Fall River's Narrows Festival of the Arts on Sunday afternoon.

For Rodriguez, touring and occasionally sitting in with Williams provided both an advanced degree in rock 'n' roll and continued inspiration as a composer. Working with bassist Kyle Ke gerreis, she wrote the tune "Mask of Moses," a biting indictment of hypocrisy that evokes Williams's plainspoken poetry (and features Williams on vocals).

"I felt Lucinda's presence when I was writing that song," says Rodriguez, 29, speaking from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Touring with her was the most intense schooling I've had in a long time. I felt very changed by the end of that experience."

More recently she's been soaking up road wisdom with protean rocker Escovedo. After appearing on the same bill with him over several months, he invited her to temporarily take over the fiddle chair in his band last June for a tour opening for Dave Matthews.

"Alejandro is the most seasoned performer I've ever met," Rodriguez says. "Every single performance is 150 percent. It's like punk rock and he expects the band to have the same attitude."

Punk rock is a world away from where Rodriguez got her musical start. The daughter of revered Texas songwriter David Rodriguez (now based in the Netherlands), she initially aspired to a career as a concert violinist. But while studying at Oberlin College, she had an epiphany when family friend Lovett invited her to sit in with his band, an experience that prompted her to abandon her conservatory studies and enroll in Berklee College of Music.

During her three-year Boston stint (1997-2000), she studied with Berklee string professor Matt Glaser, though much of her musical education took place informally. One of her housemates was fiddler Casey Driessen, now a top Nashville player who tours with Bela Fleck in Abigail Washburn's Sparrow Quartet.

"We'd sit up all night drinking whiskey and he'd teach me fiddle tunes," Rodriguez says.

Obsessed with bluegrass and Western swing, she continued to blossom under the tutelage of veteran songwriter Chip Taylor, who hired her as both a fiddler and a vocalist, though she was a novice singer. In the course of touring the country, they became full-fledged creative partners, recording three acclaimed duo albums.

In 2006, Rodriguez released her exquisite jazz-tinged solo debut, "Seven Angels on a Bicycle" (Back Porch), a breathtaking album featuring guitarist Bill Frisell that documented her deep musical connection with Taylor, who co-wrote almost every track.

She changed gears for "She Ain't Me," a project with a rock edge produced by Malcolm Burn, who won a Grammy for Emmylou Harris's revelatory 2000 album, "Red Dirt Girl." Her disparate cast of songwriting collaborators included the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, Son Volt's Jim Boquist, and Mary Gauthier, an old connection from her days in Boston.

"I did feel it was time to step out of that comfort zone with Chip," Rodriguez says, "and to see what else might come out for me."

What's so enticing about Rodriguez's music is her gift for delivering emotional grit with a winsome sound. Whether flirty, forlorn, or fighting mad, her voice is cool and self-contained, full of promise and peril.

"She manages to be both delicate and rough at the same time, a really unusual quality in a singer," says Aoife O'Donovan, vocalist for the progressive local bluegrass combo Crooked Still, who contributes harmony vocals on two tracks. "Her whole presence is really sweet and gentle, and really edgy, especially live."

Over the past year or so, Rodriguez has increasingly stepped forward as a bandleader. In concert she often plays electric mandolin or four-string tenor guitar, which allows her to more effectively lead her combo featuring Kegerreis, electric guitarist Hans Holzen, and Boston-based drummer Eric Platz.

"I love the acoustic sound, but live, the fiddle's not loud enough," Rodriguez says. "That's when I got the electric mandolin. I started getting a bunch of pedals, and that opened up my world to all these sounds and grooves, which led to tenor guitar. It's really freed me up. There are things you can do with electric instruments, adding effects and looping, creating an ethereal sound, and I think that's what I'm searching for."