Rodriguez

All Music Guide:

Another serious contester for the title of "artist least likely to enjoy a major career re-estimation," the story of cult enigma Rodriguez is nonetheless characterized by recurring moments of renaissance, sprawled over four decades and as many continents. Hopelessly obscure in the United States during his formative years as Detroit's answer to Dylan via Motown and Bacharach, in South Africa the artist notoriously remains a nostalgic reminder of apartheid. As Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad discovered in 2005, young white South Africans who had been enlisted with the national service had embraced Rodriguez as their own counterculture Hendrix. However politically incorrect this must seem, their longing for the Vietnam era -- when smoking grass and listening to Rodriguez' thought-provoking lyrics was viewed as a means of rebelling against their own ultra-conservative government -- comes across as perfectly imaginable. As a consequence, much of his repertoire remains a big favorite of singalongs at an average "Braai", or barbecue party.

Born in Detroit in 1942, Sixto Diaz Rodriguez originated from a working-class background and dropped out of high school at the age of 16. Dividing his time between hanging around the university campus and playing assorted unconventional clubs and bars, he was introduced to Impact's Harry Balk, which led to the recording of his first single "I'll Slip Away" in 1967. When Balk took off for a career as a creative director at Motown, session players and ardent Rodriguez supporters Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore put him under the attention of Clarence Avant. About to set up his Sussex label, the latter was genuinely impressed with the artist's take on Detroit street life and supplied Theo-Coff Productions with sufficient means to cut an album's worth of material. Naturally, Theodore and Coffey took up keyboard and guitar duties, in addition to employing second wave Motown Funk Brothers for a rhythm section. Recording Rodriguez separately, they afterwards matched his voice and acoustic guitar to a sonic palette of various orchestrations and psychedelic effects. Being Sussex' first release, the resulting Cold Fact was a stone-cold folk-rock classic with an otherworldly feel to it.

Though industry-wise it was met with positive reviews, commercially the album gathered only dust. Theories as to why it didn't catch on in the climate of socially conscientious albums like Cloud Nine and What's Going on range from either not being played by underground radio and thus not meeting its intended public, or insufficient marketing by Buddah, with whom Sussex had a promotion and distribution deal. Though subsequently concentrating on Bill Withers, Avant offered Rodriguez the chance to record a follow-up in London with Steve Rowland (renowned for Family Dog's "Sympathy"). When 1971's Coming from Reality met a similar fate as its predecessor, the artist left the music business to enroll at university, in between working construction to support his family. End of story, you would think, but unbeknown to Rodriguez, he definitely wouldn't be left to reside in the "where are they now files".

Much to the artist's own surprise in 1979, he was requested to do some small theater shows Down Under, coinciding with the chart success of Australian re-releases of his albums. Fast forward to 1998, when Rodriguez was even more amazed to find vast amounts of mainstream acceptance. Apparently, some South African fans had invested quite a lot of effort in tracking down their long-lost hero. Their excitement to find him alive and well convinced Rodriguez to play arena-sized venues. At last, in the 21st century, his genius was acknowledged across America and mainland Europe, his popularity re-sparked by hip-hop loving-crate diggers like David Holmes, whose mix compilation Come Get It I Got It used Cold Fact's opening shot "Sugar Man" for its own eclectic musical journey. In 2008, Cold Fact became more easily available through a lovingly annotated re-release, followed in 2009 by Coming from Reality. To celebrate his umpteenth rediscovery, Rodriguez embarked upon a world tour, meeting old fans and a whole new generation of admirers.

Wikipedia:

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (also known as Rodriguez or as Jesus Rodriguez) is an American folk musician, born in Detroit, Michigan on (1942-07-10)July 10, 1942. He was named 'Sixto' (pronounced seex-tuh) because he was the sixth child in his family. Rodriguez's parents were middle-class immigrants from Mexico, who left in the 1920s. In most of his songs he takes a political stance on the cruelties facing the inner city poor.

Career

In 1967 (under the name Rod Riguez) he released the single "I'll Slip Away" through the small label Impact. He did not produce anything for another three years until he was signed to Sussex Records; an offshoot of the Buddah label. It was after the move to Sussex that he changed his professional name to just Rodriguez. Rodriguez recorded two albums with Sussex—Cold Fact in 1970, and Coming from Reality in 1971. But after mixed reviews and low album sales he was dropped from the label, which later folded in 1975.

Post career fame

After failing to make an impact in America, he gave up his career as a musician. However, although he was relatively unknown in his home country by the mid 70s, his albums were starting to gain airplay in countries like South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), New Zealand and Australia.

After imported copies of his Sussex albums ran dry, an Australian record label, Blue Goose Music, bought the Australian rights to his back catalogue in the mid 70s. The label released his two studio albums plus a compilation album At His Best (featuring unreleased recordings from 1976 "Can't Get Away", "I'll Slip Away" (a re-recording of his first single), and "Street Boy"). Unbeknownst to Rodriguez, it went platinum in South Africa, where he achieved cult status.

With a new buzz around Rodriguez, in 1979 he toured Australia with the Mark Gillespie Band as support. Two shows from the tour were later released on the Australian only album Alive—the title being a play on the rumours caused by his public obscurity that Rodriguez had died years ago. After the '79 tour he returned to Australia for a final tour in 1981 with Midnight Oil before quietly slipping back into normal life.

Recent success

In 1991 both his albums were released on CD in South Africa for the first time. His fame in South Africa was completely unknown to him, until 1998 when his eldest daughter found a website dedicated to him on the internet. In 1998 he played his first South African Tour. A documentary about the tour Dead Men Don't Tour: Rodriguez in South Africa 1998 was later screened on SABC TV in 2001. Later he played in Sweden before returning to South Africa in 2001 and 2005.

In 2002 his signature song, "Sugar Man", was added to DJ David Holmes' mix album Come Get It I Got It, gaining Rodriguez airplay again on Australian radio station Triple J. "Sugar Man" had previously been sampled in the song "You're Da Man" from rapper Nas' 2001 album Stillmatic. In 2007 he returned to Australia in April, to play the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival, as well as shows in Melbourne and Sydney. His song "Sugar Man" was in the 2006 film Candy, starring Heath Ledger. Cornish singer-songwriter, Ruarri Joseph, covered Rodriguez's song 'Rich Folks Hoax' for his third studio album. Rodriguez now continues to tour in various countries. South African band Just Jinger has also made a very popular cover version of Sugar man. His albums Cold Fact and Coming from Reality were re-released by Light in the Attic Records in 2009.

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of Searching for Sugar Man, from Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, detailing the efforts by two fans to see if his rumored death was true - and if not, to discover what had become of him. The Simon Chinn and John Battsek produced documentary went on to win the World Cinema Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary. The film opens in NY and LA on July 27, 2012.