The first woman rock'n'roll singer/songwriter of her generation in Japan, Sachiko Kanenobu was hailed as Japan's Joni Mitchell when she made her debut in the late sixties. But in 1972, just before the release of her first LP Mi So Ra, Sachiko walked away from her career and emigrated to the United States with her husband, rock critic and Crawdaddy magazine founder Paul Williams. For several years Sachiko was a full-time wife and mother, raising two children and moving from New York to San Francisco and eventually to the small Northern California town of Glen Ellen, where she lives now.
Then, after nearly a decade of silence, Sachiko began writing and singing songs again -- this time in the language of her adopted homeland, English. But as far as her fans in Japan were concerned, Sachiko had disappeared without a trace. In her absence, the legend of the female singer/songwriter who vanished after one album continued to grow.
In the early eighties, Sachiko began performing again at small venues around the San Francisco Bay Area, both as a solo guitarist and with her self-styled "folk-punk" band Culture Shock. She also went back into the recording studio, successively recording a single, an EP, and two independently produced full-length CDs (Seize Fire and It's Up to You). Meanwhile, she ventured back on the road, touring Europe several times both solo and with her band.
By now word was beginning to trickle back to Japan that Sachiko was alive and well in the U.S.A. Her old bandmates from the early days, many of whom had become stars of the Japanese music scene in their own right (including Harry Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra, who had produced Mi So Ra), arranged for a series of concert tours in Japan. Renewed critical acclaim (and the re-release, after a quarter century, of Mi So Ra) led to a contract with a major label, Japan Victor, and the recording of her latest CD, simply titled Sachiko.
Despite her renewed popularity in Japan, Sachiko prefers to call the Bay Area home. She still lives in Glen Ellen and recorded Sachiko at Icehouse Studios in nearby San Rafael with an eclectic group of Bay Area musicians she has befriended over the years.
Sachiko says of her new album, "It represents a mix of all the sounds and energy I've absorbed from the many kinds of ethnic music I get to hear in the Bay Area. This place is a true world culture that includes Africa, Asia, Arabia, India, Latin America, Europe, and Native America. It's a wonderful source of inspiration to me, musically and spiritually.
"All the songs on this album are about love. I believe love is the source of all energy. As we head into the 21st century, we need to overcome our ethnic differences and love each other as individual human beings. I hope this 'world music' of ours will help bring people closer together."
1. Asa no Hitoshizuku (First Ray of Morning Sun)
2. Watashi no Jan to Yobasete (Let Me Call You My Life)
3. Tonbo Tengoku (Dragonfly Paradise)
4. Itoshii Tooi Hito (Long Distance Lover)
5. East & West
6. Watashi no Soba ni (Stay Beside Me)
7. a-e-i-u
8. Ai no Shizukesa (Silence of Love)
9. Shiroi Uma (White Horse)
10. Tanabata Matsuri (Tanabata, Festival of Love)
11. Come Closer, My Angel
Information compiled by Alan Gleason.
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Revised -- 12/04/1999