Revered Texas Songwriter David Rodriguez Passes Away
David Rodriguez, a beloved and influential Texas singer, songwriter, poet, and part of an extended musical family, passed away on Monday (10-26) at his home in the Netherlands according to his family. He was 63-years-old. Word quickly spread around the Austin and Texas songwriter community, and the Rodriguez-influenced Lyle Lovett dedicated his final song to Rodriguez at his show at Austin’s Paramount Theatre Tuesday (10-27) night. Lucinda Williams and other Texas songwriters also consider David Rodriguez as a peer and influence on their music.
David Roland Rodriguez was a Hispanic American born and raised in Houston where he contracted polio at two-years-old. Because of David’s mobility issues, his parents bought him a guitar and he learned to play music at an early age. David’s aunt, Eva Garza, was a Decca Records recording artist and Mexican actress in the late 40’s and 50’s. By the age of 14, David was playing guitar and piano in rock and folk bands.
Rodriquez eventually became a law and economics graduate, and a favorite of listening rooms in Austin in the 80’s and 90’s during a decade of living in the Live Music Capital, being voted Best Texas Songwriter in 1992, 1993 and 1994 in polls conducted by Third Coast Music. Then in 1994, David decided to move to The Netherlands where he resided for the rest of his life, but his musical influence lingered in both the canon of songs he left behind, and in the lineage of his musical family, and he continued to write and record music. David’s sister Leticia Rodriguez is also an artist, and his daughter Carrie Rodriguez is a well-known fiddle player and songwriter based in Austin.
Circumstances have it that Carrie Rodriguez just gave birth to her son Cruz Calvin Jacobs on October 6th. “He’s a laid back little dude – kind of like Dad,” Carrie said when introducing the newborn to the world.
David Rodriguez released a total of nine records between 1992 and 2007, mostly through European labels where his music also found an appreciative audience. Though not a household name, Rodriguez inspired many of his fellow songwriters in way that can still be heard in the music today.
Lyle Lovett recorded David’s “The Ballad Of The Snow Leopard And The Tanqueray Cowboy” on his 1998 album Step Inside This House.
October 28, 2015 @ 11:34 am
R.I.P
October 28, 2015 @ 6:28 pm
David Rodriguez is the only person in 30 years of writing about music that I unreservedly called a genius. While I disliked the CD title, The True Cross (the original cassette release was called Man Against Beast), it’s one of the great achievements of Texas music. Recorded live in an Austin listening room, it’s on a par with Townes Van Zandt’s Live At The Old Quarter, Houston. My hope is that David’s death will, at least, move some record label to reissue it, preferably as Man Against Beast.
November 8, 2015 @ 8:13 pm
Well said, John.
November 2, 2015 @ 12:52 am
David R.I.P
Gr Johny Idema
November 8, 2015 @ 8:11 pm
David was a truly gifted songwriter with an engaging stage presence. I wish I’d gotten to know him personally. I think I did meet him at Chicago House in Austin. One of my favorite all-time lyrics (from “The Ballad of the Snow Leopard & the Tanqueray Cowboy”: “I’m a poet & I’m bound to walk the line between the real & the sublime & give the muses back their own.” That is simply brilliant.
November 10, 2015 @ 10:41 pm
Anybody know what he died of?
October 27, 2020 @ 1:53 pm
I’m sorry I’m so late in finding this tribute, but I still think about David frequently.
I met him in the late 80s or early 90’s at a show outside of San Antonio, where it seems he was opening for Townes.
I was familiar with his song “Ballad of the Snow Leopard …” from the cover done by Shake Russell, but had never heard him nor heard any more of his material.
As I stood at the bar on my arrival, he was playing, and whatever song it was immediately got my attention. By the end of the song, I knew who he was.
At the break I asked him, “are you the guy who wrote ‘Ballad of the Snow Leopard?’
He smiled and acknowledged that he was.
I remember telling him that I recognized him by his writing, and that I had always wondered who David Rodriguez was, and why I could never find out anything about him.
I bought his cassette tape that night, and kept it for about 20 years.
I was an aspiring songwriter, and devotee of Townes, but I knew that night that Townes saw the same thing in him that i did.
I never saw him again, but years l later, I stopped at a small record shop in Gruene and saw that they had a good selection of Texas artists, so I asked the girl at the counter to give me the latest CD’s fron the top 3 artists that she thought I needed to hear.
One of them was Carrie Rodriguez.
I got to my car and popped hers in the player first. After about 3 minutes, it hit me. This was David’s daughter. No doubt.
I could tell by her writing. His influence was that strong.
I sure hope this brings him a smile