The International Appeal of Bluegrass Music - Far wider Than You May Think

The Ozaki Brothers (when younger)

Bluegrass music and bluegrass bands are much appreciated in countries around the world in ways and to a degree that U.S. fans of the same music are not always aware of.  Japan, for instance, has had a hardcore following of bluegrass for decades (it all started with U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan after World War II) and has produced hundreds of bluegrass bands in that time – many of which are very, very good.  I doubt that most of them understand the meaning of the words they are singing but they do not let that slow them down much, especially on the bluegrass standards. 

And More Recently

I had the good fortune of meeting the Ozaki Brothers in 2007 in Owensboro, KY at that year’s ROMP Festival at which I recorded a couple of their songs to video.  The brothers are credited with being some of the earliest bluegrass pickers in Japan after being exposed as teens to the music at a U.S. military base they worked at after the war as kitchen-help.  In 2008, I had lunch with them, some band members, and their wives in which they told me the story of how immediately fascinated by the music they were.  It is my theory, somewhat confirmed by the brothers, that people in other countries particularly admire the expert musicianship in bluegrass and are initially drawn to the music for that reason.  I have long said that the finest musicians in the anywhere work in bluegrass bands, something I firmly believe to this day. 

It is not only Japan that produces bluegrass bands, but the only other foreign bluegrass band I’ve personally recorded is one from Hungary (includes one American member) called Acousticure.  I did see one other Japanese band at ROMP one year, Bluegrass 45, but didn’t manage to snag any footage from that performance.  Heck, there is even an organization called the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) promoting bluegrass music throughout Europe that right now is featuring a previously-unpublished version of the interview Bill Monroe did in the seventies with a Dutch radio broadcaster.  Good stuff.  (http://ebma.org)  And a quick check in Wkipedia produces a long list of European bluegrass bands – bands from practically every country in Western Europe (link shown below).  You may have to copy and paste it into your browser to view it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bluegrass_music_festivals#Europe

See below for a couple of videos I shot in 2007.  Keep in mind that this is before high definition cameras were common – or affordable – so they are not up to the clarity we’ve all gotten used to so quickly in the last couple of years.

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