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Two years after Oscar-winning film, Searching for Sugar Man raised questions about royalties for Sixto Rodriguez , a copyright and fraud lawsuit has been filed against Clarence Avant , who signed the Detroit singer to a record deal more than four decades ago. Rodriguez is not a direct party in the complaint, filed in Detroit federal court by Gomba Music , which is owned by longtime Michigan music executive Harry Balk . But the musician does stand to benefit if Gomba is successful. Speaking with the Detriot Free Press, Avant denied wrongdoing. “I think I’ve been pretty fair to Rodriguez all along,” said Avant, 83. “I wish him nothing but the best, because I think he deserves it. I admire the nerve.”  Gomba said it had an exclusive songwriting deal with Rodriguez that was willfully ignored by Avant , whose Los Angeles-based Venture Records released the musician’s “Cold Fact” album in 1970 . Gomba holds songwriting copyrights for those Rodriguez songs, the compla...

Sixto Rodriguez @ the Iron Horse Music House in Northampton MA on Sept 2, 2012. Yes, I'm hooked! His voice is amazing and it's so refreshing to discover such a unique artist. Rodriguez Tour Dates

Sixto Rodriguez rises from the record bin of history. Sixto Rodriguez is having his moment in the limelight. Finally. The 70-year-old singer-songwriter from Detroit has been touring regularly since the beginning of the year, playing festivals in North America and Europe. He recently took the stage as the opening act for Animal Collective. It’s a remarkable run for any musician. But when you consider Rodriguez hasn’t released any new music in more than four decades, the attention he’s now receiving feels downright miraculous. “This is beyond anything I would have imagined,” says Rodriguez, speaking from his home in Michigan. “It’s almost grotesque, a huge leap from here to way over there. Top o’ the world, Ma!” To be fair, that huge leap didn’t happen out of thin air. All of this chatter was stirred up by the release of Searching for Sugar Man, Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul’s documentary about the unusual trajectory of the septuagenarian musician’s career. A quick r...

Click here to listen Legends rarely disappear. But Sixto Rodriguez that did just that. A singer from 1960s and '70s Detroit, Rodriguez (whose surname is also his performing title), had some of the lyric quality of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but a voice like James Taylor. Cold Fact, his debut album, layered his aching voice over Motown horns and strings. Though there was plenty of buildup, Cold Fact never became a hit in the United States. But bootlegged copies made the album — and the singer — a legend in a South Africa in ferment over apartheid. Then the short, sensational career of Rodriguez ended in spectacular fashion. Rumors of a grotesque death abounded; one even suggested the singer set himself alight onstage one night, burning to death before the crowd. A new documentary called Searching for Sugar Man explains what really happened. The film's director, Malik Bendjelloul, says the saga of Cold Fact was shrouded in mystery from the very start. "No one...

A Detroit musician living in poverty didn't know that in South Africa, he was more popular than Elvis and the Beatles!