What I am Listening to : Rodriguez

Even though I used to watch a lot of music documentaries and these days even though I don’t watch a lot of television, I still watch a lot of documentaries, I have yet to see 2012’s Searching For Sugar Man   That documentary had a fascinating hook. Early 70s musician Sixto Rodriguez’s records had became hugely popular in South Africa, and yet in on his home country, the United States, he was virtually unknown and possibly considered deceased. My intro to Rodriguez like so many artists in modern day was via the soundtrack (in this case the Johnny Lee Miller / Lucy Liu take on Sherlock Holmes show “Elementary”) It’s hard sometimes to articulate why an artist “hits” a certain way. Rodriguez’s sound isn’t easy to describe except by saying it is of its time, 1970 and 71, during the bridge between 60s protest and 70s singer songwriter radio sound. There’s a variety of names that come to mind when I listen to Rodriguez -Donovan , Cat Stevens, Tim Buckley, Gil Scott Heron, Arthur Lee, Jose Feliciano and Curtis Mayfield. Cold Fact for me is the recommended disc- a near perfect summation of his work but the Follow up Coming From Reality has plenty to recommend it. The sequel given an air of working toward commercial success. He worked with Producer Steve Rowland (who has a fascinating career of his own - from producing Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich and the Pretty Things and to having UK pop hits both with his group The Family Dogg and with Albert Hammond and discovering artists including Peter Frampton, the Thompson Twins and the Cure) on Coming From Reality and Chris Spedding played guitar. I don’t know why but Cold Fact really resonates me (and Coming From Reality is a good listen too). Like many of the artists I listed above, there only seems to be a limited commercial appeal (talking in terms of competition with pop music) but because of that, perhaps it is more timeless and even if it sounds of the time with its production and instrumentation, the songs hit like they are modern