里国隆 - カンツメ節

Описание: Debut album of Sato Kunitaka. I'll let EM Records, who did a compilation of his works a while back, to describe his life in the following excerpt:

"Blind itinerant musician From Amami Island. Sato Kunitaka was born in 1919 in the Amami Islands, south of Kyushu. He lost his sight at eight months; his grandfather taught him to play sanshin, the southern shamisen, to ensure that Sato would be able to earn a living when he grew up. When he was 12, he began to play tategoto, a vertically-held form of koto. He developed a unique style on both of these instruments. From the age of 17, he began his wandering lifestyle, traveling through the Ryukyu Islands, a thousand-kilometer subtropical archipelago including Okinawa. He supported himself as a traveling musician, performing island folk songs, pre-War popular songs and his own compositions. Although he was a fine instrumentalist, Sato's real power resides in his voice: a powerful, wailing, howling sound dredged up from the depths of his being. Some have likened the impact of his voice to that of Charley Patton -- a dark, intense sound-world most unlike the relatively smoother, sunny vocal styles of other Ryukyu/Okinawa singers. After World War II, Sato's popularity spread to the U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa, and it is rumored that his wanderings took him to Hawaii. He continued his itinerant ways, traveling through the archipelago, singing, playing, living and loving (a man of rumor and mystery, he is said to have married at least eight different women during his lifetime). In the early 1970s, he came to the attention of Takenaka Ro, a writer and political activist, and through Takenaka's enthusiastic support, Sato travelled to Tokyo in 1975 to record his first album. Sato's fame continued to spread, and he performed at various folk festivals and made other recordings, some of which were released posthumously. Traveling and playing throughout the islands to the end, he made his last public appearance in Okinawa in 1985 and died the same year."

Audio taken from the CD reissue, which sounds identical to the LP.

里国隆 ‎– 奄美の哭きうた
Label: Teichiku Records ‎– BH-1527
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Japan
Released: 25 Nov 1975
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Min'yō, Folk

https://www.discogs.com/release/10818587