Next week, Sixto Rodriguez will finally embark on a major U.S. tour in support of the debut album he released 39 years ago.
Rodriguez, who performs under his last name only, is 66. The Detroit folk-rocker (appearing at the High Noon Saloon Friday, April 10, 9:45 p.m.) was 27 when his Cold Fact LP was released on Sussex Records in the United States in 1970.
In between, Rodriguez spent most of his adult life working construction jobs. He didn't know Cold Fact was bootlegged en masse throughout South Africa. He didn't know thousands of fans listened to his songs in Australia and New Zealand, too.
"In 1997 these two guys from South Africa decided to find me," said Rodriguez in a phone interview last week. "They thought I was dead. But the Internet came along and brought us together, and when I toured South Africa in 1998, the crowds were huge."
The Rodriguez revival has gone domestic, at last. The Seattle-based record label Light in the Attic rereleased Cold Fact last year. Rodriguez will perform in 12 U.S. cities this spring (Madison being the first and smallest) before touring in Europe this summer.
Cold Fact gained popularity in the 1970s among Afrikaners enlisted in the South African military. Stephen Segerman was one of those soldiers. "Someone in our bungalow brought a home-recorded tape [of Cold Fact]," Segerman wrote in an entry appearing on the Rodriguez website, Rodriguez says he believes those South African soldiers connected to "the social elements" of his music. His folk songs portrayed the grit of 1960s urban Detroit. Cold Fact was one of the first American rock records to address the emotional experience of living in urban decay. The song "Sugar Man" is a plea to a drug dealer to "bring back all those colors to my dreams." The easygoing guitar folk is punctuated by psychedelic ornamentation. The lyrics are clear and exceptionally personal. "It's the same world now that it was back then," says Rodriguez. "Kennedy promised a $1.25 minimum wage. Now the global economics show the working person is still trying to make it."