:: Saturday, August 02, 2003 ::

Tokyo subway ads, Tabasco, Nutria, Camels and Marshall amps

TOKYO (Aug. 3) -- I rode the Tabasco Special to work yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn't New Iberia bound -- it was headed from Ikebukuro to Otemachi, where I work as a mild-mannered newspaperboy.

But the exterior of the train, on Tokyo's Marunochi subway line, was a mobil ad for Tabasco sauce, which as we all know was concocted by ole E.A. "Mr. Ned" McIlhenny to spice up the nutria he unwittingly unleashed on the state.
"Mr. Ned" imported the king-size rodents from Argentina in 1938, where he kept them in a fenced enclosure on his Avery Island estate in southern Louisiana. However, in 1941, rising waters from a gulf coast hurricane enabled the Nutria (Spanish for Otter) to swim out of their compound. Feeding on the abundant plant life in the Louisiana swamps and waterways, they quickly reproduced. And they have been wrecking the fragile ecosystem of the bayou ever since. Wildlife officials say up to 100,000 acres of Louisiana marsh show signs of damage from nutria and 35 square miles of Louisiana's coast a year are dissapearing as result.
These Stephen King-like monstrosities have the head and coat of a beaver, the tail of a rat, webbed hind feet and yellow teeth and weigh in around the 15-20 lb (I don't do metric) mark. They also have a wail like a banshee.

Anyway, the train looked pretty.

Getting inside the thing, I checked out the ads for the hell of it. One of them, an ad for Camel cigarettes (yes, lung-cancer ads are legal in Japan), featured a gaijin (Japanese for foreigner) sprawled out across the "davenport of despair" (OK. I stole that line off The Wind, Warren Zevron's new release), electric guitar across his lap.. The ax is plugged into a humongous great Marshall amp. However, the keen-eyed amongst us will notice that the amp is not turned on. Which is just as well as the first chord the guy struck would have simultaneously both deafened and defenestrated him!


"Look mom, I can see my house from here...."

Anyway, here's a recipe for nutria. Eat one today and help preserve Louisiana:

Crock-Pot Nutria
2 hind saddle portions of nutria meat
1 tomato, cut in big wedges
2 carrots, sliced thin
1/2 cup white wine
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 cup demi glace (optional)
1 small onion, sliced thin
2 potatoes, sliced thin
Brussel sprouts
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Layer onion, tomato, potatoes, carrots and Brussel sprouts in crock pot. Season nutria with salt, pepper and garlic to taste and place nutria over vegetables. Add wine and water, set crock pot on low and let cook until meat is tender. Cook for approximately 4 to 6 hours. Garnish with vegetables and demi glace (4 servings).

By the way, wannabe bounty hunters seeking to get into the business in a comparatively safe way will be pleased to hear there is a $4 bounty on the varmits. Click here for details.

:: Les Coles Saturday, August 02, 2003 [+] ::

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News from Hiro Suzuki, Deborah Coleman Band

TOKYO (Aug. 2) -- Yesterday I mentioned Blues Paradise, which has become an established, and welcomed, addition to the blues scene here in Japan.
As I mentioned, last year's concert included a fine performance by Deborah Coleman. I also mentioned, back on April 7, that Japan's own Hiromasa Suzuki had joined Coleman's band.
A couple of days back, I received an e-mail from him, telling me what he'd been up to later. Below are extracts:

"I just came back from July Tour 2003 with Deborah Coleman last night. It was a long tour, visiting and playing at so many different places includes Gaia Portugal, Rauma Finland, and Mansque France.
"Here are some nice photos of me and Debora on stage and I'm sure that these can show you how much I've enjoyed working with her."
HIRO SUZUKI

Way to go Hiro! Hopefully, you can persuade Deborah to play Japan again real soon.

Here are the links to the photos:
http://www.vividpix.com/MVBF%202003/crw_0042.htm

http://www.vividpix.com/MVBF%202003/crw_0069.htm

http://www.vividpix.com/MVBF%202003/crw_0071.htm

http://www.deborahcoleman.com/index.htm

:: Les Coles Friday, August 01, 2003 [+] ::

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The Campbell Brothers in Tokyo

TOKYO (Aug. 2) -- As I mentioned in the last post, veteran Japanese blues fan Kazuo Utamura-san sent me some outstanding photos of The Campbell Brothers' July 14 perfomance at Blues Paradise 2003 at ABC Hall, Tokyo.
The first set, Vol.1, which comprises blue&white photos taken at the sound check, are up at http://www.tokyo-blues.com/Campbell_bros_1.html.
Three further volumes. another blue&white set from the sound check and two color sets from the actual performance, will be added in the next couple of tunes, so stay dazed.

:: Les Coles Friday, August 01, 2003 [+] ::

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Japanese blues fans the greatest

TOKYO (Aug. 1) -- Japanese blues fans have got to be amongst the most knowledgeable and dedicated in the world. Just five hours after getting tokyo-blues.com back online, I checked the site's Guestbook and found a "welcome back" message from Kazuo Utamura-san. I first met Utamura-san at Japan Blues Carnival 2003, where we were both over on the steps (stage left) along with fellow photographer Suzuki-san. The photographers and journalists who cover the blues scene in Japan are, as I suspect they are elsewhere, a friendly lot.

Utamura-san and I did the introduction thing and started chatting, ending with the traditional "see you later". A couple of days later, I received an envelope at work containing some of the photos he took of Sonny Landreth. I thanked Utamura-san and received his permission to use them on the site. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to doing this because the plug was pulled on the tokyo-blues Vol. I.

Still, Utamura-san and I kept in contact and we next ran into each other at Blues Paradise 2003, which featured "the sacred steel" of The Campbell Brothers. I was "officially off" that night, having spent my "blues credit" at The Daily Yomiuri -- meaning the paper wouldn't be covering it. Utamura-san was, however, clicking away like a cricket, and getting into work yesterday I found a bunch of really high-quality and artistic photographs of the gig.

I scanned the photos into my computer last night and will finish the page layout tonight, meaning the photos will be up on the Review page tomorrow. I'll also be adding Utamura-san's shots of Sonny Landreth in the near future.

In the meantine, you can check Utamura-san's work out at: http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~detectiv/bc03sl.htm

Getting back to Blues Paradise, this now appears to be a regular part of the Japan blues calendar, which opens in May with Japan Blues Carnival in Hibiya Park and closes in December with the Park Tower Blues Festival at Park Tower, Shinjuku.

Last year's Blues Paradise included Deborah Coleman and Billy Branch and Otis Clay. The event is put on by Cocolate Cream Productions, an outfit doing some interesting things.

In addition to Blues Paradise, Chocolate Cream also puts on the yearly Osaka-Chicago Blues Festival, which started last year. This year's lineup, in addition to The Campbell Brothers, included the Delmark All-Stars Blues Band (details here).

Chocolate Cream are also the people behind the Jazz in Toranomon series, which this year featured the nouvelles Zydeco of Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin' and last year brought offer the Lil Rascals (details here).

All in all, Chocolate Cream, headed by Shige Kinoshita-san, is doing a great job on adding to the Japan blues, and NOLA, and Zydeco scene.

:: Les Coles Thursday, July 31, 2003 [+] ::

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Tokyo-Blues.com Be Back

After all de trials and tribulations, Tokyo-Blues.com be back -- bigger, better and badder than ever.
Check it out on http://www.tokyo-blues.com
Thanks to all of you for your kind support and ecouragement during the down time.

:: Les Coles Sunday, July 27, 2003 [+] ::

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'Uncle Gus' Gussa marks return with Turn up the Blues-a-lator

PR WEB (July 27) -- One of the best all time Blues Artist/Guitarists of the 60s, Chris "Uncle Gus" Gussa, has returned to the Blues. Starting off from winning Best Blues Guitarist in San Diego to playing Blues in the bars of Chicago to producing movie sound tracks and national jingles, Uncle Gus has gone full circle back to recording an incredible Blues Album of twelve original songs entitled Turn up the Blues-a-lator on Roadcatz Records.

Back in 1966 in the small town (at that time) of El Cajon, California, Chris at the age of sixteen, won a contest for �Best Blues Guitarist in San Diego� �I think I won a hundred dollars and got a write up in San Diego Magazine or some such thing�, says Chris. But this was the beginning of �a long strange trip� for Uncle Gus (to quote The Grateful Dead.)

During or around that time, Chris had been jamin� with a bunch of young guys
At a teenage nightclub called �The Palace� in Mission Beach who called themselves The Iron Butterfly.

They got this �not so appealing� offer to play five nights a week in a seedy little place off of Sunset strip for around fifty dollars a week each and sleep on the floor for free. Most of them quit school and went for it, but Chris stayed behind (mostly because his mother wouldn�t let him quit school) But also because he preferred Real Genuine Blues to the strange Heavy Psychedelic stuff they were doing.

Well, a few weeks later a talent scout from a �small label� called Capitol Records came in and signed them. The rest is history and �Uncle Gus� was literally left singin� the Blues.

And sing the Blues he did, playing in Chicago at the age of eighteen and also in practically every state before settling on his ranch in Cochise County Arizona in 1982.

Studio work was always the most satisfying thing to Chris, so after he married his beautiful wife, Heidi, who worked with him as rhythm Guitar and vocalist on the road for years, he set up a Working Studio on his small ranch in Arizona. He was mostly producing jingles and educational movie sound tracks at this time.

It was here that Chris started working with Legendary Cowboy Humorist, Baxter Black. Baxter, you may remember, used to be a regular on the Johnny Carson Show. Baxter and � Uncle Gus� have appeared on PBS TV together and have produced many national radio commercials including Chevy Trucks just lately.

But as the years kept going by, Chris �Uncle Gus� Gussa started missin� the Blues. He hadn�t done any kind of serious Blues Project in over twenty years!

In the words of Chris, � It was like wakin� up from a coma or somethin�, all of a sudden somethin� snaps and you say, �I�m a Blues man, I remember now�

And thank God, he did! Chris brings back with him a feeling from the past, a time when Blues didn�t mean, �bang on that guitar and scream a lot, you can get away it�. This is True Time Proven Straight up and Perfectly Executed Electric Guitar Blues. The kind that only a few people have ever bothered to try to preserve, the kind that used to wake many of us up from a sound sleep when we�d nodded off listening to late night radio only to say, �Man Who is that guitar player?�

Turn up the Blues-a-lator consists of 12 original songs. Chris�s lead guitar work, vocals, and songwriting are just plain awesome! His lead guitar work is a little like BB King, Eric Clapton, and Johnny Winter all rolled into one.

Most tunes are Chicago Style �movers� and everything on the CD features a powerful electric guitar solo with the exceptions of �Big Juicy Burger Blues� and �What�ll this ol� Ford do?� These are Acoustical Style Blues, with story tellin� and humorous lyrics. they feature great acoustical guitar solos and have drums and electric bass.

Chris�s Web site can be found at http://www.bluesblvd.com/Uncle_Gus/CD.html If you visit his Web site, you�ll find lots of links to hear a full two minutes each, of all twelve original songs, and purchase the incredible new Blues CD, �Turn up the Blues-a-lator�.

:: Les Coles Sunday, July 27, 2003 [+] ::

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