Carrie Rodriguez has always gravitated toward the spotlight, even if it's taken a while to get there.

"My mother said that when I was in Montessori school, they would put on these plays," she recalled in a phone interview last week. "And I would always have the part of the tree or the plant or something. And my mom asked the teacher, 'Why do you keep giving Carrie the role of the tree?' And the Montessori-school teacher says, 'Because no matter what I do, Carrie's going to end up on the front of the stage, singing and dancing, so I can afford to give her the tree role. I need to give the shy kids the main roles.'"