Asheville turned out to hear Rodriguez earlier this year, and the Mountain Xpress wrote about his fascinating history. Now the Detroit Free Press takes notice:
He has been a familiar figure on the streets of the Cass Corridor for decades. You’ll see him walking whatever the weather, often carrying a guitar, always dressed in black and hidden behind dark glasses. So constant that he’s almost invisible, Sixto Rodriguez has been a man with a secret, a story waiting to be told.
Forty years ago Rodriguez (who prefers to be known simply by his surname) recorded an album called “Cold Fact.” Its politically indignant urban folk songs, with psychedelic tinting from producers Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey and a Motown rhythm section, announced the arrival of a singular new voice. Some even thought this son of Mexican immigrants could be the Detroit melting pot’s answer to Bob Dylan.
But record company incomprehension and the artist’s personal eccentricities — he was known for performing with his back to the audience — conspired to sink “Cold Fact” without a trace. When its 1971 successor, “Coming from Reality,” met the same fate, Rodriguez withdrew from the music industry to raise his family.
But the story of Rodriguez does not end there.
Unbeknownst to the singer, his melodically rendered tales of Detroit street life had acquired a considerable cult following in Australia. He was eventually persuaded to perform shows there in 1979 and 1981 (the second time touring with political rockers Midnight Oil). He basked in the first substantial artistic appreciation he’d ever experienced, then returned to his hometown anonymity and localized concerns.