It has taken a while but here is finally an English translation of Claudio Giuliani's review of
Racing Aimless which appeared earlier this year in the magazine
Mescalina. The original was written in Italian and has been translated by Silvia Guslandi an Italian-American currently doing doctoral studies at the University of Genoa.
Review of
David Roland Rodriguez’s album Racing Aimless (Waving Fish Music 2012)
3-3-2012,
by Claudio Giuliani
It’s quite
a long story, I know, but it’s worth telling it all. Who of you remembers David
Rodriguez? His name spread around here during the first half of the Nineties, a
bunch of albums in his pocket and a story to tell, serious and carrying a
certain weight; songs that represented bursts of real life, a poetics of the
day-to-day, of the dusty side of the street, of ashes on your shoes and of
sweat, of denied rights and of hard labor. They were songs of social protest
and hope of a fair destiny, songs of authentic feelings and family bonds, but
without the commercial sugar of the happy life. I remember meeting him and
listening to him perform live during a tour on small obscure suburban stages,
organized by the late Carlo Carlini, a man a lot of us owe a great part of our
musical experience to: if it hadn’t been for his pioneering vision, in Italy we
wouldn’t have listened to or seen many of our heroes, be they tiny or
celebrated. Thanks Carlo! This review is for you.
David
Roland Rodriguez was born in Houston, Texas, on January 1st 1952 to
a family of Mexican origin. A disability kept him from approaching
basketball or baseball. It was the guitar that kept him company, along with a passion for a magical thaumaturgy that can hide within a song the attraction of
civil struggles.
With a law
degree in his pocket, he exercised the profession of street lawyer in favor of
labor battles and human rights, fighting against isolation and social
discrimination. At the same time, his aptitude for music – inherited by an aunt
Eva Garza who was quite famous in the Fifties and recorded for Decca, Columbia
among others – directed him towards the path of singer-songwriting. The
gratifications would not be lacking; in ’92, ’93, ’94 as well as in 2007, with the release of
the live recording A Wintermoon he was nominated “best songwriter in
Texas” by the magazine Third Coast Music. In his albums you’ll find a duet with
Lucinda Williams (The True Cross) and songs of his have been performed
by the likes of Lyle Lovett, Nancy Griffith Vince Bell and Melissa Greener. Among his cds,
several are worth mentioning: Landing 92, a collection of songs from his
early career, The Friedens Angel, Forgiveness, and Proud Heart
(which contains our friend Luigi Grechi’s cover of Chitarrista Cieco,
souvenir of an alcoholic meet-up during the afore-mentioned tour). The man
would later immigrate to the Netherlands and choose a lower profile career,
performing and recording occasionally. Last November we met up with his
daughter Carrie Rodriguez, a splendid violinist who had already played
alongside Chip Taylor and Bill Frisell. In our chat with her, we recalled to
her the meeting with her father and showed her covers of his cds from our
collection (receiving the blow that in the meantime others had seen the light).
We talked about his songs and social involvement; it was a meeting that brought
back memories.
A while
later, thanks also to Carrie who initiated the contact, I got an email that
said: “Dave has just cut a new album, you want to hear it?” Here it is! In all
its exemplary balance, in the magnificence of its emotion that oozes class and
sensitivity, in the concreteness of its bare sounds and of a human warmth that
is reliable and mellow. Racing Aimless is a beautiful album, worth
looking for, a dusty record that sounds 100% Americana, exquisite songwriting
lathered in tradition and wandering along blue provincial roads, where you can
track it down or trip over it, in an unexpected place. The players are DavidR.: voice and guitar, Tom Cantrell: mandolin and bass; DanEarhart: accordion, are the frame of the ensemble; around them are –
distributed among the various episodes – our Danilo Cartia (Rome) on
banjo and Ky Hote on slide guitar.
Banjo notes
introduce Gulf Coast Plain, a song marked by a bare and epically
profound banjo, then the accordion joins in and our heart opens; the title
track Racing Aimless is another charm: Cantrell’s mandolin, gives the
impression of tasting the milk of paradise. Unbroken Highway is one of
the album’s treasures, Rodriguez’s voice, a strong point of the cd, is
expressive, true, and grainy. It’s a track that has the night’s fragrances and
the pipe dreams of the border in it. Gambler’s Angel is worth the whole
album, there’s the breath of the West, the desert dust of the border, Cartia’s
banjo holding the reigns and the accordion tracing the horizon. Cowboy Waltz
is another gem, riding along the same path. The final track Yellow Rose of
Texas has a classic flavor, splendid sounds and enchanting atmospheres. It
is a small but great cd. It is one of
the most fascinating of this early 2012.