Katy Daley is emceeing the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s ROMP 2009 music festival and providing Bluegrass Country with regular on-air and online news updates.
3:03 pm CT, Wednesday
The Ozaki Brothers — Yasushi and Hisashi — came all the way from their home in Yokohama, Japan to attend 2009 River of Music Party in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Ozaki Brothers are credited as being Pioneers of Bluegrass and for being in the small group of people who introduced bluegrass music to Japanese audiences. The brothers first heard “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” on a record their father brought back from a trip to the U.S. in the 1920′s and fell in love with American folk music. During World War II (when they were 12 years old and 14 years old) they were prohibited from listening to American music or using the English language. So they listened to the record secretly.
Right after the war they learned to play with home-made instruments out of cigar boxes and the three strings used on a shamisen. In true bluegrass tradition their mother sold her kimono to pay for a steel guitar and a real guitar for them to learn. (How many musicians tell us how their mother sacrificed so they could learn music??) First they learned Hawaiian music and country music. Can you believe it? The Ozaki Brothers just told me they listened to Armed Forces Radio Far East Network and they remember the show Rice Paddy Round-up, which I listened to growing up in Okinawa!
They formed a band and performed at Army camps to earn money. They remember earning $50 a night for a six-man band. At that time 360Yen was $1.00. At that time the average Japanese earned about 4,000Yen a month. So they were earning BIG MONEY. Plus, after the war there were food shortages and the American Army camps would serve the band dinner. They would take their guitars out of the cases and fill it with food and take it home so their families could eat.
They discovered bluegrass in 1957 when they met Mr. Harry Arita, who collected bluegrass records and memorabilia He didn’t play any instruments but he brought the Ozaki Brothers together with some other musicians and they formed the first bluegrass music band in Japan. Some of their favorite bluegrass groups were Bill Monroe, Louvin Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys. They performed on Japanese radio programs and continued to earn GOOD money at the American Army camps. Yashushi became an IBM computer engineer after school. And Hisashi worked for Sumitomo Life Insurance Company. That was the end of their bluegrass days. We are happy to see them at 2009 ROMP and celebrate their contribution to international bluegrass.
- Katy
p.s. At lunch I saw them eating at the table next to me. They were splitting a HUGE piece of chocolate cake a la mode. I told them they could become millionaires if they would write a book about how to eat big desserts and stay skinny. They will let me know when it’s published.
12:22 pm CT, Wednesday
I’ve just finished watching today’s first Video Oral History Project presentation at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky. The first video was an hour-long interview with Eddie & Martha Adcock. What a valuable service the IBMM is performing by recording Pioneers of our music. They discussed their personal and professional histories. Their recollections were skillfully edited with performance video. Fascinating! I wish you could all visit IBMM and see these videos. IBMM’s Executive Director, Gabrielle Gray, tells me that so far the museum has so far produced between 170 and 180 in-depth first person interviews. Most of them were gathered in the person’s home and they choose their own interviewer. If they don’t have a preference, the project director (Joe Gray) suggests who might best do their story. All of the Video Oral Histories are kept in a large bank vault until the time they’re edited. So far about twenty have been edited into individual documentaries. Museum visitors can view the documentaries. They are also available to be shown at bluegrass events around the world. For more information on how to host a Bluegrass Masters Film Festival, contact Gabrielle Gray at:
gabrielle@bluegrassmuseum.org
- Katy
8:29 am CT, Wednesday
The TV weatherman says we’re in for some hot weather. Today will be 91 degrees and the mercury’s only going up from there for the rest of the week. Won’t complain about that — yet! Today at “Woodward’s at the Museum” the music starts at 11 and runs through 4 with groups like Blackberry Jam, Mountain Harmony, King’s Highway and more regional groups.
The Bluegrass Masters Film Festival at the Museum starts today. These are the Museum’s on-going Video Oral History Projects. How lucky we are to have so many of the music’s pioneers still available to interview and hear in their own words about the part they played in bluegrass history. Today’s featured artists are: Eddie & Martha Adcock, Josh Graves, Pete Seeger and Wade Mainer.
Tonight is the 2009 ROMP Kick-Off Concert with music from Mike Snider, Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives and the Del McCoury Band. Guess I don’t need to tell you this Del-Head is looking forward to that. There’s a huge billboard in downtown Owensboro advertising this concert with bigger-than-life-size photos of Del, Marty and Mike. I’d like to look out the Control Room 3 window every morning and see something like that!
- Katy
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