Description
Label Review.
1970 debut album. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
‘Cold Fact’ is the debut album from Detroit, Michigan, singer-songwriter Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on the Sussex label in March 1970. The album featured a blend of folk, pop, and psych rock, with some social commentary which flopped in his home country of the USA. He released a second album the following year and then after getting dropped by the label walked away from his music career.
However, his records travelled around the world and he gained a good fanbase in Australia and Rodriguez was able to tour there twice in 1979 and ‘81. It was in South Africa though where his two albums became a huge cult success and in the pre-internet age, the common consensus there was that he died after the second album. In 1997 his eldest daughter came across a website devoted to him. She contacted them and discovered his fame at the foot of Africa. The following year he went to the country, performing to huge crowds. A documentary was made about his belated success and ‘Searching For Sugar Man’ was a popular film in itself.
Although Rodriguez has never followed up his two albums, he continues to tour and now the two records have been reissued by a major label for the first time.