Blues Asia Network

Blues Asia Network has been given the ultimate compliment by Indonesia’s revered guitarist and musician Andrietidie:  he asked us if he could feature our Facebook Page feed on the sidebar of his excellent website at www.Gitargila.com.  Of course, we were delighted with that arrangement.  It is our first step toward syndication among blues-oriented music sites throughout Asia and the Pacific.  Thanks, Andrietidie!

INDONESIA BLUES

Lots happening in Indonesia on the blues front.  Jakarta just staged a 3-day, 10-stage, 100+ bands rock concert, the largest in SE Asia.  Gugun Blues Shelter represented the blues in the event.  Tomorrow there will be a special BLUES 4 FREEDOM concert and exhibition, featuring Gugun, the Flowers and Hari Pochang among others.  Blues fans were notified of the annual major blues event on a university campus in Bandung on 24 September, where bands perform, workshops are held and lectures given — a major educational effort promoting the blues.  The Jakarta River Blues Band performed at Jakarta’s Ritz-Carlton, showing just how classy the blues can be.

The Medan Blues Society, which was launched on 8 July, already has a very fine website — very professionally done.  And its page on Facebook has become very, very busy, with lots of posts by many different participants.

CELEBRATIONS

The Counter Culture Club in Bangladore, India, hosted a celebration of the centennial of Robert Johnson back in May.  And release just early this week is a documentary of the event, Ode to Robert Johnson, which both lauds the blues legend and also give insight into the current blues scene in India.  We will be featuring it on our upcoming Radio-TV show this Sunday.

Meanwhile the ABC network in Australia honored The Backsliders for its 25 years of blues making.  The band was honored with a special broadcast — we posted the link to those who want to listen to it.

SPECIAL GIGS & FESTIVALS

Hong Kong blues band Then You Suffer was one of a group of bands featured at a major concert with a packed house.  We posted a video on our FB page from the concert.  Especially notable is the very positive response from the audience.  Blues musicians in HK speak of the lack of interest in the blues in HK, but the evidence from this video does not bear that out.  Maybe it’s the venues that don’t get it.

We’ve uncovered a collection of videos of pre-teen Japanese blues sensation Ryunosuke Yamagishi, whose first YouTube video features him at age 9.  He’s now 12.  When we posted on our FB page an example of his playing, one of our readers recognized him — and shared with us a video he had taken of the kid at age 10 when he performed in Hong Kong at The Wanch, and also at the Fringe Club.

Festivals have been happening all over.  The Queensland Festival of Blues and the Japan Blues Festival were staged last weekend.  This uupcoming weekend will see the 1st China International Blues Festival, organized by the CC Blues Cafe of Beijing.  We also announced the line up for the Jakarta International Blues Festival, which will be held this year on 17 December.  We have early news that the Taiwan Blues Bash this year will be a club-based affair, sometime in late October or early November — but no artists have been announced yet.  On 24 August, we are here announcing for the first time a special Blues Night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, featuring Shun Kikuta, backed up by blues veterans the Blue Rats, and Michael Bourne, backed up by Filipino teenage blues band Bleu Rascals.

Our reader Mike Mudd, currently living in Taiwan, sent us a notice that “Taichung-based blues-rock band Chen Mo’ played at one of the world’s largest festivals.”  He promises to sent us more details and perhaps a video soon.

Nepal’s Ashesh and Nekhvam have just launched a tour of Europe.  We will feature this band on Sunday’s radio-tv show.

HOW TO

Singaporean blues vocalist and harp player Louis Lam of Chicken Shack Revival posted a video demonstrating the differences between 5 different microphones in his collection.  Illuminating results.  And he also shared a video of him playing harmonica while babysitting his little daughter, who of course played a few notes as well.

REQUEST FOR NEWS & FEEDBACK

Blues Asia Network continues to grow and expand our reach.  If YOU have any blues news to pass along, send it to bluesasia @ gmail.com   We are also looking for regular correspondents willing to submit occasional feature articles about blues in their neighborhood.  Articles by these articles will receive a special Author’s Box at the bottom of the article, a good way to spread one’s reputation in the blues world.  Let us know if you are interested.

Our Radio-TV show is also looking for decent-quality video.  If you have video with steady image and good audio, tell us about it.