Roots Music in Japan
Maybe it’s a sign that my youth is slipping away, but I noticed lately that the hip-hop and rock tracks on my iPod have much lower “play count” numbers than the more acoustic-leaning, folk and roots tunes. Performance-wise it’s the same – interest in playing quiet coffee-houses is winning out over rock gigs. Fair enough, time to embrace the change, I thought, and went looking for Japanese music in the same vein.
Roots music back home usually consists of bands influenced by bluegrass or Celtic sounds, and weirdly, that can even be found here. Witness the hottest salary-man band this side of Kentucky:
These guys are good, but I was looking for something that was more an expression of Japanese roots, rather than Western ones. Some friends suggested Okinawan-influenced rock, which they said is often referred to as Japanese roots music. I’d love to hear suggestions. One that I’ve found that I particularly like is Miwa Sasagawa. She’s not from Okinawa, but she has a rootsy sound that’s just what I am looking for. Actually, she sounds a little like Susan Aglukark, an Inuit singer from Canada.
Luckily for me and the band, we found a singer with similar tastes. And with her in the lead, we altered an Odani Misako song in the direction of a rootsy/folk sound. Odani is not a roots artist, but she is a good songwriter so her songs can be interpreted easily into other genres. Check it out:
Contributor Bio: JJ, shockingly, teaches English, but would prefer to do other things (shockingly). So he writes songs or comedy or the occasional theological treatise. Sometimes he tries to combine all of them. This is most easily observed at www.youtube.com/fatblueman.
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