Articles

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…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine August 1971, Volume 6, Number 2 About the Cover: Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt were reunited on the stage of Bean Blossom, Indiana this year, as a climax to the largest bluegrass festival ever held. It had been twenty-three years since Lester Flatt had left the Blue Grass Boys to…

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…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine May 1974, Volume 8, Number 11 “I never was much of a believer in astrology until last winter, when I read horoscope and it said I was going to have a good spring. Well, now it’s spring, and things are going so good, I guess there’s something to be said…

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…

Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited MagazineMay 1974, Volume 8, Number 11 In the early years of bluegrass, a large number of combinations rather quickly took up the style being popularized by Bill Monroe and his band. While it is true that most of the elements of the bluegrass style had been around for several years and…