While I was in Tasmania I received an e-mail from Eric Clapton asking if I’d like to perform at his Crossroads Guitar Festival.

It had been over forty years since I had seen Eric. I first met him when we were both playing on a Murray The K rock’n’roll show that was held at the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre for ten days. Four shows a day and each group got to play one number. The Who were also on the bill and to watch them destroy their instruments four times a day was hilarious! When I arrived in London two months later, the only two people I knew there were Eric and Ginger Baker. We hung out together playing guitar and talking shop. So to get together again sounded like fun, though I did feel somewhat intimidated being on a show which featured so many top electric guitarists.

I was asked to play a few solos and two duets with Keb’ Mo’ plus a 40 minute workshop at the Ernie Ball Stage in the Guitar Village. Keb’ I knew from a NAMM Show and loved his voice and musical feel.

Also on the bill was Bert Jansch who I hadn’t seen for at least ten years.

Pino Daniele from Italy was another artist I wanted to meet. I had listened to his music while living in Italy and loved his voice, songs and guitar playing.

Also there was Earl Klugh whose music I have followed over the years.

Robert Randolph and his band was another group I wanted to hear. Then of course there were the electric blues icons, i.e. Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, James Burton, Derek Trucks and even ZZ Top. And of course Eric and Steve Winwood. Plus the pop stars John Mayer and Sheryl Crow.

It was hot, hot, hot at the Toyota Park Stadium in Chicago. Friday was the best day. It was rehearsals from 10 am until 11 pm. Jo came with me and we also had two of our children and my grandson Noah. Plus friends with their children. It was a great weekend for fathers and sons to bond. We all watched the groups rehearse and do their sound checks. A very relaxed atmosphere for the artists while the stage, video and sound crew worked hard to put all the pieces together.

Keb’ and I rehearsed “Mississippi Blues” and “Roll and Tumble Blues” in our dressing room area. We tried a few different approaches and after an hour or so we had worked out our duet parts. Thank goodness for the AC in the artists’ dressing room and canteen areas. We also had the refuge of the Fender Tent which featured a 12’ x 20’ screen that projected the World Cup games. Eric, David (my son), Noah (my grandson) and I watched the USA as they struggled to win but even with all our yelling they ended up loosing.

The ‘acoustic’ musicians, Bert, Keb’ Mo’ and myself had our sound check after all the bands had completed there. It was well after 10 pm and we could only check the monitor levels and not the complete system. In fact on Saturday the sound for my solo tunes was very bad with feedback and cutting off. Fortunately things went better for my two duets with Keb’ Mo’.

Friday and Saturday were intense yet so very enjoyable. What can beat hanging with old friends, your children and musicians whom you always wanted to hear?

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Last night was our final concert. Sold out again and held in music shop/school that had a large room on their third floor. It was equipped with Bose speakers and as the last five concerts I haven’t even been using a microphone. I plug directly in to the sound system and I’m still amazed by the natural acoustic sound that the under-the-saddle pickup produces. Dick Boak suggested I use this as it is the same setup that Eric Clapton uses. If it’s good enough for Eric then it certainly is good enough for me.
My Signature Martin has been a dream to play. For the first few concerts I used my bare fingers but after that I have been using fingerpicks. I have the guitar setup with a modified set of John Pearse light gauge strings: .012, .016. 025, .032, .042 and .054. This seems to work best for the guitar and my touch.
Tokio and I do the whole two hour concert together. We each play a few solos but everything else is duets. Tokio has a dynamite solo arrangement of Georgia On My Mind played in the Key of C. He has also been playing Big Salamander (an original composition). I want to learn both tunes.
Out duets are mostly taken from our Bermuda Triangle Exit CD but we have been adding some new numbers to our repertoire. Tokio understands my playing and phrasing backwards and forwards. It is very fascinating to see how he has taken a base in country blues guitar and has added his Japanese sensibilities. This combination is very successful especially for his original compositions. Tokio has also mastered slide blues guitar and his playing ranges from Blind Willie Johnson to Tampa Red to Japanese melodies.
We have been playing big and small clubs up and down the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. Last night was Nagano. This morning we drove to Obuse to see the Hokusai Museum (which was a special treat) and then have a fantastic lunch with a variety of foods and tastes. All topped off by the local specialty – chestnuts. I had chestnut ice cream and Tokio had chestnut moose.
Then we headed back to Nagano and took the train to Matsumoto. We are staying tonight at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn). Tonight we sleep on the floor. Tomorrow back to Tokyo and then on Wednesday our never-ending flight to America.
I can’t wait to return to Japan but I’ll be seeing and touring with Tokio in October in the USA.

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The venerated grey haired “senior citizen” teacher is just waking up in Oita (on the island of Kuyushi). The venerated teacher’s wife – golden Lotus – is full of energy after yesterdays bout with Hiroshima’s “casual” cooking (as Tokio calls it). It’s all go and again I won’t be allowed to carry anything as venerated teachers just aren’t allowed to exhaust themselves! I must say I could easily get use to this but Jo told me to not dream on!

Last night was a lovely concert in the Brick Block club that is right on the seaside. My audience seems to be ranging from all ages and I’m even picking up a younger generation then usual (see the attached photo).

After the concert we went out to eat with some of the audience. Basically it was more to drink toasts and let them have more time to take photos and shake hands – with – you guessed it – the venerated old guitar master. One of our group was a man in a wheelchair and of course the place picked was up two narrow flights of stairs. A real Larry David scene. Jo mentioned to Tokio that it would be rather difficult if not impossible for the wheelchair to get up the stairs. At first Tokio said he could carry the man but we said it would make the guy loose face. So it was decided at that point to find a different eating place on the ground floor level. We started to walk and I said jokingly to Tokio “What the fuck” (like Dexter’s sister). He asked what this meant and we told him the context and that it was a funny phrase if said at the right moment. WELL!!!! from that moment on Tokio kept saying “What the fucka” to almost everything and we were in stiches.

Today we have rented a van for us and Tokio and Haruko. Of course Jo will handle all the driving as we explore the coast and then head in to the mountain. We will stay at an old classic inn tonight that is a gift to us from this well known doctor in Oita. He is apparently very famous and the Inn is owned by his hospital. If you are imagining a very dignified grey haired doctor then revamp your picture to a small, pony tailed, dressed in motorcycle leather mid 40s man. Very interesting and our stay in the Inn should be a laugh.

I was out by 7am to get Jo’s Grande Cappuccino and chocolate chip scone (heated) at the local Starbucks and then I went to have a Japanese breakfast. I went with the salmon, miso soup, sea weed, some other things that I have no idea what they could be. Seating next to me was a Japanese business man who had gone with sunnyside eggs and ham (plus all the other stuff). I was eager to see how he would eat the eggs with chopsticks but before I could wink the eggs had been devoured.

We have three days of exploring Kuyushi before the next four concerts back up North. We will be going high in the mountains to a volcanic national park. Finally I’ll be able to wear some of the warm clothing I packed!

More later,

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Still being amazed. We woke up in Osaka and I headed down to Starbuck’s to get Jo her morning coffee and scone but here the shop opens at 8 and not 7 like Tokyo. So I headed back to the hotel and decided to have the buffet breakfast and then get the Starbucks. We are staying in a hotel basically for Japanese. It is not a tourist fancy five star hotel. But rather a very efficient and clean home away from home for travelling folk. The breakfast room was filled with slim Japanese men, women and children. You certainly don’t see too many fat people here. In fact I can’t think of seeing any yet on this trip. Plus bald men seem very rare!!

So I get my various muffins, eggs, tea, toast etc and see that these skinny Japanese are filling up their plates three times higher than mine. They combine Miso soup, rices of various kinds, noodles, radish, nato, broiled fish with scrambled eggs, bacon, french fries, muffins with bitter chocolate pieces and croissants. I’m pretty amazed if not jealous. And then I see a 10 year old girl with her chopsticks eating a croissant. The method is to stick both chopsticks in to the croissant and eat it like a corndog! Elegant indeed.

Then after stuffing myself I head to Starbucks. I’m still 12 minutes early for the 8 o’clock opening. A skinny – yes, yet another skinny ballet looking waitress with a mask over her face- runs out to me and apologizes that I am waiting and offers me free coffee while I wait. I say thanks but tell her I don’t drink coffee and am only on a mission of mercy to make sure Jo begins her day with a grande cup of cappuccino. She runs back in to the store and they open up early for me. How polite is that.

Amazingly smoking is prohibited on the sidewalks. No one jay-walks. No one litters even though you can’t find a garbage can anywhere. People are extremely polite to each other. Even close friends at the concerts bow to each other repeatedly.

Last night’s gig was sold out. No white faces except Jo and mine. Great audience but the sound folk here in Japan seem to believe in lots of reverb on my guitar and voice. We keep asking them to reduce this but in the end I always sound like I’m playing in the Grand Canyon. But the audience seems to like this sound. After playing over two hours Tokio and I end with Freight Train which is always the biggest hit!!! The start clapping in time at the first note. Then several encores and after this the hardest part of the evening when I sign autographs – meaning on CDs, on books, on the T-shirts made for the tour and even on expensive Martin guitars! Nothing like hand to hand contact and bowing continually – which I guess helps the old back.

We have a few more hours here then back to the bullet train and off to Hiroshima. Just spoke to Sarah on Skype and she reminded me not to make any verbal gaffes!

More fun and adventures ahead,
Stefan

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Morning in Kyoto. This afternoon we drive to Osaka where I have a concert. Plenty of strange food, beautiful temples and autumn colored trees.After Osaka we head to Hiroshima for another concert.

I dressed for autumn/winter and the weather is more like spring! My corduroy pants are much too heavy and I tried to buy some pants here but their largest size is like a medium (34-36) in the USA. Lots of small and skinny folk here. But atleast I bought over Hawaiian shirts which I’m wearing on stage and off. I’m that colorful big American in the crowded train stations.

We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Once here I went off with Tokio to see Zen temples while Jo and the gals went window shopping. I’m not sure how many more five toe socks Jo can buy but she’s searching for unusual clothing “things”.

The Zen Temple complex was beautiful and very soothing. Very interesting as the drive there on the outskirts of Kyoto was pretty ugly. The walk up to the Temples was a road littered with interesting and colorful shops with tourist stuff, food and even hot chestnuts. The Temple complex was silent, clean, beautiful and spacious situated by the banks of a river. Beautiful gardens with autumn colored trees. Very few Europeans/Americans. Filled instead with Japanese and other folk from the East.

After we all got together and went to a Korean alla Japanese barbecue restaurant. Apparently being Japanese made it “better”and “cleaner”. I don’t have to tell you how they consider Chinese food!!

It was a fun meal and very interesting seeing how the meat was consumed by our Japanese hosts. There were big lettuce leaves and you would take the cooked meat, put some sauces on it, then wrap the meat in the lettuce (like a blintz). Whereas Jo and I ate the lettuce/meat in several bites our Japanese friends stuffed it completely in to their mouths! To see these skinny delicate Japanese women with their mouths stuffed was very “unusual”.

Also when eating, none of our Japanese friends would touch the food until Jo and I were served and we would insist that they eat as well!! Traditions and customs are so unique here. Toshi, who lives in Osaka and was our host, arrived with another male driver and Kuki (she plays fiddle with Toshi – they play Celtic music) along with another young lady. We knew all four from our last trip so it was like meeting old friends. Tokio and Haruko have known Toshi for over five years. It turns out Toshi will be getting married to the other gal of the foursome in March. There was absolutely no way we could determine by there being next to each other that they were together. Jo joked to Toshi that he wasn’t even holding hands with her. Toshi laughed and smiled and said “that is the Japanese way”!

Finished Shutter Island which Charlotte recommended. An enjoyable read but somehow disappointed by the ending. But I can picture how Martin Scorese will present this on film. A hurricane, insane asylum, riots – all the necessary ingredients for a Scorsese thriller.

Well off to bring the luggage downstairs and wait for Jo to return from here explorations of the folk shops of Kyoto. Then in the van to Osaka which is about an hour away.

More later,
Stefan

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Country Blues Guitar is my love.

Old recordings from the 1920s of legendary bluesmen are my menu. Transcribing these arrangements has been a challenge and over the last many, many decades I have tried to play as well as teach the style and techniques that I learnt first hand from Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Bukka White, Skip James, Fred McDowell and others.

Today with the web I can communicate these ideas via video as well
as with words. In this column I hope to present Country Blues tunes that
will excite your ears and tickle your fingers. Let’s correspond with both.

I look forward to you audio and video comments.

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