Blog | RandyWilsonMusic

Sourwood Mountain Muse

Hello Family, Friends, and Neighbors,

I am in Japan with Yoko Nogami and the blogs below have a lot of pics and videos from my stay here. I have

also some music and stories from the mountains of eastern Kentucky- original songs and different styles of playing the banjo. You may be surprised to know that the banjo has been in Japan for a very long time- ever since Commodore Perry and gun boat diplomacy opened Japan to trade in 1853. The banjo came with Perry's engagement with the Japanese. The greatest collection of banjos came from here, Akira Tsumura's 10001 banjos. And Ken Aoki is recognized as one of the greatest tenor banjo players ever. Bluegrass music is big in Japan. I see bluegrass festivals popping up all over the place. I have played jams with local old time mountain players in Chiba and Kyoto. It is a rich culture full of all kinds of music.

The Kentucky Arts Council gave me an arts apprenticeship where I am sharing folk dance calls with Maggie Neal of Berea, Ky. Family here have been kind enough to help me video some dances to send to Maggie and I plan to call some dances in Berea with Maggie when I return in October.

Yoko's father passed June 20 and there is a blog about his life below. We have been tending house and entertaining many family and friends who knew Yoko's father. They have been very gracious to let me use the house to record some songs and tunes for you. They have also been very patient with my Japanese!

Come along to the mountains of Japan and the mountains of Appalachia!

Little Birdie

Along around 1980 I ventured over to Roscoe Halcomb's place in Daisey, Ky up Leatherwood near the North Fork of the Kentucky River. I listened, amazed at his playing and singing, his big gnarled hands wrapped around the neck of the banjo, playing with such force and intensity. It was some rocking melodies, not bluegrass, not rock and roll. It was just Roscoe's own thang, born of hard work and hard living. He could play overhand. He could play two finger, three finger, an

Randall Wilson

7 days ago2 min read

Full of Deities, Empty as Mu

It is a riddle- a culture full of deites with a spirituality intent on emptiness. Shintoism with its central symbol, a mirror, reflecting the spirit in you and all of nature, then Buddhism, no supreme being, but with a multitude of deities and its meditative goal to empty oneself of all images, all rational constructs and return to the center of being, Mu, no-thing. Yoko said the deities are somewhat like the saints of the Catholic church- spirits that are honored and venera

Randall Wilson

7 days ago3 min read

Johnny Had a Wedding,Phoebe Didn't Come

I was in a college dorm room in 1973 listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and their album with May Belle Carter. It was called "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". I heard them playing "Soldier's Joy" on the banjo. What was that sound, I wondered. It wasn't bluegrass. It was something else. That sound tickled me. Where was it from? You know how you are walking along and you hear or see something just at the corner of your awareness. You turn your head. Then you turn and

Randall Wilson

Sep 42 min read

Joy on the Streets of Shimokitazawa

The dance is called Awaodori and it originates from the island of Shikoku in Japan. The drums pulsing through the streets, the sheer exuberance of the dancers, the brilliant colors, men, women, and children dancing and parading through the streets of Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, Japan! Streets of joy! I could not get enough of it!!! Shimokitazawa is one of the many burghs in Tokyo. This one, the ancestral home of Yoko's family, the Nogamis. A little rain this night, but when yo

Randall Wilson

Sep 42 min read

Sakana!!!

Japan! It is a series of islands in the ocean the size of California! Lots of islands, hundreds of them, four of them are the largest. Islands in the sea. That means "Sakana!!!"- a lot of fish to eat! Fish fixed in an endless variety of ways! Fried, grilled, boiled, raw! In soup, in dumblings, in pudding! Sakana!!! Breakfast in Japan Baba sings children's song about Killi fish. Temaki Sushi dinner - tuna, squid, flounder, yellow tail, salmon, salmon roe, cod roe, sea ur

Randall Wilson

Aug 272 min read

When Corn Was King

The Wilson family from Big Branch, Ky ca. 1920 L-R Alifair, Mamaw Donie, Elmer (my dad), Woodrow, Grandpa Drew, Addie This is my father's family from Leslie County, Ky. Well, it's the start of the family. There were 6 more to follow. Marcus, Nancy, Dorothy, Edward. Two children died as infants-Allisee and Edna Mae. Many famlies in that era had a lot of children- help to raise corn. A lot of corn. Corn fed the hogs, cows, chickens, mules. And corn fed t

Randall Wilson

Aug 273 min read

Eastern Kentucky Banjo

When the folk music revival got traction in the 1960s folksters flocked to the Round Peak section of North Carolina to record some great old time banjo players like Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. And there were numerous other old time banjo players in that area. Nearby Galax, Va held an annual folk festival that drew people by the thousands. Manuals and books sprouted like cudzu, all promoting one style of old time banjo they called Round Peak or"clawhammer". In the 1970s I

Randall Wilson

Aug 181 min read

Shintaro Agi

Shintaro Agi, that was his pen name. His family name was Hideyuki Nogami. I just called him Jiji (Japanese for Grandfather) because he was the father of my partner, Yoko Nogami. He passed away in June and I came across the waters to Japan, joining Yoko, her daughter Tora, Tora's fiancé Justin, and Mitsuko, Mr. Nogami's wife, to memorialize his life. We were joined by a multitude of friends who knew him and his work. His birth was somewhat biblical. The family needed

Randall Wilson

Aug 132 min read

Mountains, Migration and Music

Chip Bang! Chip Bang! Chip Bang! It is spring on the mountain and there it is- the unmistakable sound of a Scarlett Tanager. A brilliant red bird with stark black contrasting wings. Hard to find in the canopy filled with trees and leaves but that call- I know it is there and I can remember days I have seen this extraordinary bird. It is spring on the mountain and the warblers are back as well- the hooded warbler, Kentucky warbler, Cerulean warbler, and countless others. And

Randall Wilson

Jun 173 min read

Randy Wilson

Folk Artist

Sourwood Mountain Muse

Little Birdie

Full of Deities, Empty as Mu

Johnny Had a Wedding,Phoebe Didn't Come

Joy on the Streets of Shimokitazawa

Sakana!!!

When Corn Was King

Eastern Kentucky Banjo

Shintaro Agi

Mountains, Migration and Music

Contact

Randy Wilson