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David Rodriguez (3)

David was born on the 1st of January 1952 in Houston, Texas. His father came from a Mexican immigrant family, and his mother’s older sister was under contract with Decca records in the 50’s, as the South American Singer, Eva Garza. When he was two years old, he was struck down with polio, and since then, he has used a leg brace and more recently a wheelchair. Because he couldn’t play in the street like other children, his parents bought him a guitar. When he was thirteen he became a founding member of the Houston band James Manlove and the Rebellers, playing club gigs on Telephone Road. At fourteen he formed his own group e.t.c. which did Thirteenth Floor Elevator covers. At fifteen he joined the jug band Captin Hood’s Sarsaparilla. At sixteen he was introduced into the Houston folk music scene by the American guitarist Ronnie Levine where he fell in with the company of, among others, Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt, Lucinda Williams, Vince Bell, Lyle Lovett and Eric Taylor. At nineteen he performed in an avant-garde ensemble as a pianist in the conservatorium. He studied orchestration and composition under Kent Kennan and Karl Korte. In the mid-1980s, David formed the New Wave band "Davy & Z-Vue" in Austin, Texas. And in the late 1980s, again in Austin, Texas, David Rodriguez, "the people's folk singer" came into being. He is father to singer-songwriter & violin player Carrie Rodriguez, who has recorded several albums with 1960s singer-songwriter Chip Taylor. David Rodriguez moved to Europe in the late 1990s, and was in The Netherlands, still playing and recording, when on October 26, 2015 he left this earth.