Of all the bands I saw at this year’s South by Southwest music festival — nearly 60 in four days — the one moment I’ll never forget belonged to a man who was making music when most of those musicians weren’t even born.

In front of an overflowing crowd late one night in March, Jimmy Cliff, the iconic reggae singer and songwriter, took the stage to rapturous applause and sang his hit version of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.”