Just heard about the passing of Mr. Makoto Ayukawa of Sheena & The Rokkets. His wife, the lead singer Ms. Sheena passed away in 2015. I had the pleasure of meeting Ayukawa san several years ago and connected on Facebook. As I recall seeing posts on Facebook of him performing until recently, this was a shock to me.
My first live this year on the 15th was a lot of fun! Thank you to all that came to see us! My next show at Stagecoach will be on February 26th! February is my Birthday Month so it’s going to be a special one!
For the last two days, when I started up my computer and scrolled my Twitter timeline, I was really sad to read the news about the loss of three famous people in a row. I personally don’t know them but it’s really sad they had to leave this world so fast.
First it was Mr. Jeff Beck. I knew his name since when I was small but in the year 2000 when he released his album “You Had It Coming”, I was thrilled! I love this album. In the past ten years or so, I’ve been singing “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ on my shows and it’s always fun.
昨日はまずジェフ・ベックの訃報。。。 子供の頃から名前はもちろん知っていたしギターも耳にしていた。 でも2000年にリリースされた「You Had It Coming」を聴いた時、素晴らしいな~と思いました。 ここ10年くらいは”Rollin’ and Tumblin'”をジェフベックのヴァージョンでステージで取り上げています。
And yesterday after knowing about Jeff Beck, another news popped in. It was about the passing of Tatjana Patitz, she was one of the Super Models in the ’80s~’90s. I remember reading Vogue, Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, all the fashion magazines and she was one the top models on the covers along with my favorite models, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford! She was only 56…too young to go.
I still remember this issue very well from 1992. Tatjana is the one in the middle.
And then again today, the shocking news about Lisa Marie Presley. Elvis Presley’s only daughter. She was only 54. I just saw the movie “Elvis” and saw Lisa in a photo with Austin Butler who played Elvis.
そして今日はエルビスプレスリーの一人娘、Lisa Marie Presleyの訃報。 ついこの前エルビスの映画を観たばかり、彼女が主演のAustin Butlerと写真に写っていたのを見たばかりでした。 Tatjanaに続き、同年代の訃報はかなりド~ンと重いものを感じます。
Got this photo from our friend and my former band member and a writer, Mr. Byrd Shirai. This was a photo I’ve never seen before. Brings back lots of memories of that night at my live!! I even had my classmates that visited from the states there to see my show for the first time.
昨年終りに長年の友人で、元Keiko Walker & The Hot Street Bandのメンバーでもあり、 私達のアルバムのライナーノーツを書いてくれているライターの白井英一郎が、送ってくれた写真
My first gig this year would be at Stagecoach Chigasaki on January 15th Sunday. It will be with Kazuaki Furuhashi and Yukito! Looking forward to see you all !
It’s always so much fun to sing Emmylou! We did a new set of songs from our Vol. I live. Songs I used to sing when I was younger and songs we’ve never done before. Still haven’t covered half of her albums so this series hopefully continues(^_-)-☆
Received these beautiful flowers! The Christmas scent spread around the room as soon as I opened the box. Their from my favorite florist Gente! Thank you so much!
November’s been a tough month for me with my asthma and a family member being hospitalized. Oh, and the flat tire and all But hopefully, December turns out to be a better one with some Christmas Spirit
Was going through my old case and found this! SHIME gave me his pick probably in the early years of Broken Ashes ( Shime & Keiko Walker) I’ve been using it so the print is fading
I’ve been humming “Songbird” all day long today. Not the one I sing on stage but Christie’s. Another incredibly sad news popped in on Instagram when I logged in today. My favorite artist Stevie Nicks posted earlier today.
Christine McVie, a member of Fleetwood Mac passed away on November 30th at the age of seventy-nine. It’s hard to lose a band member you’ve been together with for a long, long time. Stevie and Christie’s been together in Fleetwood Mac since 1975, that means they’ve worked together for 47 years!! Earlier this year, I lost my very special friend and singing partner for almost 40 years. It still breaks my heart to try to sing the songs we used to sing together.
Christine McVie’s “Songbird” was a song SHIME, my musical partner in BROKEN ASHES loved and, he wanted me to record it in our album back in 1999. As a result, we didn’t because we were already planning to record “I Don’t Wanna Know” from the same album “Songbird” was in. The fabulous Fleetwood Mac album, “Rumours” (1977). But I remember recording a demo of the song.
I was still a kid when this album was released but even back then, I was familiar with the hits on the two albums, “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours”. But back in the ’80s when I started my career as a musician, I was always listening to the two albums all the time. And later in my career, I recorded “I Don’t Wanna Know” (BROKEN ASHES) with SHIME and “Rhiannon” on my “Both Sides Now” album.
Thank You!!! Received a beautiful Advent Calendar🎄 It’s from a confectionery shop “Cafe Ohzan” They’re not just delicious, they’re beautiful!! Can’t wait to start opening the tiny boxes everyday till Christmas.
Tried out the new Godiva & Georgia drink. I’m into the Coca-Cola app which gives you a free drink ticket when you get enough points. Today I got the Godiva Hot Chocolate drink. It was very good!! Actually, this tiny can costs 180yen (*_*) Luckily, I got it for free from using the Coca-Cola drink ticket!
Thanks Facebook for picking up this memory post! I remember flying to Kanazawa together and I was really panicking💦 I hate flying of course, I have claustrophobia…
I came across this old Calendar from Nashville which was an old Country Music venue in Ginza, Tokyo. I used to perform here after I started performing with my own band, Keiko Walker & The Hot Street Band.
Around 1993, Country Music was still more popular in Japan than now. We used to get a big crowd each stage, especially on Friday nights. There were still famous Country Artists from Japan performing back then. A lot of the performers that used to perform then have gone to heaven.
I scanned some photos from Nashville. I had the privilege of performing with Famous Artists like Connie Smith and The Louvin Brothers here at Nashville too.
When Nashville was still here, there were no SNS nor blogs so I never had the chance of writing about it nor leaving photos so I wanted to write about it and thank everyone who was a part of this era of Country Music in Japan.