Hisashi Ozaki, 1933-2018

Pride is taken in the historic cultural connections between the music of Ireland and the old-time, bluegrass, and related music of North America. Richard Thompson provides on Bluegrass Today an obituary of Hisashi Ozaki of Japan, who with his older brother Yasushi became devoted to traditional American country music at a time when it was the product not merely of an alien culture, but of a country embroiled in fierce and immensely destructive war with their own. The brothers received an IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2013. Read more in Richard's feature, which includes an eleven-minute video (also on YouTube) of them performing at the 2014 Fuji Rock festival.