Sixto Rodriguez

I first heard a Rodriguez album when I was sharing a house in Sydney in 2000. One of my housemates was from South Africa, which happens to be the only place in the world where Rodriguez sold a lot of records; becoming a cult figure from the 70's when his albums were written, to the 90's when he first toured South Africa. 
The South Africans originally thought he had died in tragic circumstances, but for almost 20 years he was working in construction in Detroit, oblivious to his popularity abroad. 
The story of Rodriguez; his failing career in America and subsequent revival; the story of his family and his philosophy, is very well told in the recent Oscar winning doco "Searching for Sugarman".
I took the photo above at the Byron Bay Blues Fest last Friday, and feel privileged to have seen him perform.