Rodriguez – Cold Fact

Twas funny. I got this in a paper slipcase, no press release or anything. I put it on and wham! I was immediately psychedelically warped back to the early seventies. As I listened to a rather lovely album of angsty hippy singer-songwriter folk pop, with an occasionally funky edge, I was compelled to think why someone would make an album so utterly old fashioned. You weren’t even born when Woodstock happened you chinless student numpties, so get over it ”“ yes, this is all very nice, but retro can only go so far before it gets ridiculous. It was only after I took the CD out of the machine I noticed the “Recorded Aug/Sept 1969, Tera-Shirma Studio, Detroit, MI”. Well, that would explain a few things. The other line on the CD was “produced by Mike Theodore & Dennis Coffey”. Blimey, Detroit, and indeed Motown, legends (Detroit Symphony and The Funk Bros play on it too, I’ve since discovered). But who the hell is Rodriguez? I’m no expert when it comes to seventies music, but I know what I like, and this is a very good album, so I pottered off to Google. I’m not proud ”“ I might as well say something informed, even if it’s all borrowed from elsewhere. This was the debut album from a certain Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, son of Mexican immigrants. He started out performing and recording as Rod Riguez; genius. There was one other album, Coming From Reality (1971), before he was dropped and gave it all up for a ‘normal’ life. Nobody cared, apparently. Except they did, but only hippies, who probably did there bit to stick it to the man by making illegal copies of this instead of buying it, therefore ending his career. Fucking hippies. Anyway, somewhat miraculously he ended up as a cult figure in Australia and South Africa in the eighties (you couldn’t make this shit up, could you?) and is now back on the road, with this being the first official European release of his debut album. His only previous excursion here was, rather obliquely, David Holmes remixing his track Sugar Man (which is on here) in 2002. Rodriguez is now compared to a host of his peers, and pretty bloody good ones too, if you like that kind of thing; Dylan, Donovan, Love, The Byrds, The Band, Dr John, even Sly Stone and The Velvet Underground. What he does is make a nice strummed sound which is produced with a variety of sounds typical of the period, creating an album that may not have appealed to specific audiences then, being overly diverse, but works as a historical yet genre free document today. Rock, folk, jazz, soul, blues; it’s all here. And lyrically its very ‘then’ too. There’s a lot of Dylan going on, with social commentary laced with cynicism and cocaine, but there’s plenty of lovelorn and touching moments too. Before now, I would probably have liked a CD (just one mind) from this era, but wouldn’t have known which one to pick; I’m rarely in the mood for this sort of thing. Now, I’ve got one. Thank you, Sixto, and congratulations on your newfound popularity at the ripe old age of 66 ”“ you deserve it. 72%