Good friend Lyn and I headed off in my little convertible on a 12 hour road trip to the Hunter Valley, to see the legendary “Sugar Man” Rodriguez in concert at the Bimbadgen Winery. A wonderful group of fellow music luminaries –  Xavier Rudd, Russell Morris, Archie Roach and Mark Wilkinson joined Rodriguez under the stars.

The self-taught guitarist’s love affair with Australia is no secret; Rodriguez first toured Oz shores in the late 1970s, long before the rest of the world caught onto his talent thanks to Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar-winning film “Searching for Sugar Man”.

He still ‘had it’ – there’s no mistaking that voice, which, unlike the frailty that saw him escorted on and off stage, belies his 74 years. Close your eyes and you might as well be listening to the young man who recorded Cold Fact nearly five decades ago.  Sugar Man, that wonderful ode to the neighbourhood drug dealer, was greeted with gusto from the mostly baby boomer crowd.  “You know, Sugar Man is a descriptive song, not a prescriptive song,” he said afterwards to an audience that was clearly old enough to know better.  “Stay off the drugs.”

Thanks to glaucoma, Rodriguez’s sight is all but gone, so there was no set list from which he could read. That meant some long pauses between songs as he conversed with his touring band.On a day that saw the world say goodbye to music legend Leonard Cohen,  it was a privilege to see another one in the flesh in concert.

As it was to see an Australian legends, Archie Roach and Russell Morris, in support.

Lyn and I decided to drive back along the east coast

road, stopping off at Pambula beach to break up the road trip. A lovely sunrise the following morn.