Special Series

Week 2:  6/24 – 6/30 1971-6-24 Thursday Woke up at 8 am – that’s early. Watched “Beverly Hillbillies” rerun. Then DC sightseeing.  First Post office, then the White House, to the top of Washington Monument.  Unfortunately, it was not clear, but we can see the White House and Potomac River right below us.  Had a…

Fifty years ago this week the Japanese bluegrass band Bluegrass 45 arrived in the United States to begin a tour that was arranged by Dick Freeland of Rebel Records.  In the past two articles in this series we introduced the band and explained how they came to meet Dick Freeland during his trip to Japan…

Last week we introduced you to bluegrass music in Japan, the Otsuka Brothers, and the formation of the Japanese bluegrass band Bluegrass 45.  In this week’s article (what we are calling “week 0”) Akira Otsuka will reveal how meeting Ian and Sylvia Tyson at the Osaka Expo in the summer of 1970 led to a…

It has been fifty years since the Japanese bluegrass band Bluegrass 45 toured the United States—from June to September in 1971. In order to help document this tour and give Bluegrass Unlimited readers a better understanding of the popularity of bluegrass in Japan and how a Japanese band was received in the United States in…