But not tonight.
Branson, Mo., music community mourns the loss of legendary performer Shoji Tabuchi
Shoji’s After Hours was facing out, that is, in one of the record shelves at the right most position where the record is sort of visible. I tend to go from right to left when looking through the albums so I can see the fronts, and I passed over Shoji last night in favor of some Liona Boyd and a George Benson/Earl Klugh collaboration (called Collaboration for some reason).
But tonight we’ll listen to it.
I have one or two of his other records lost in the stacks.
Tabuchi was born in Japan during World War II, and as a young violinist, he heard a show by Roy Acuff, and he (Shoji) fell in love with country fiddle, so he came to the US and perfected it and eventually bought a theatre in Branson to perform there. My beautiful wife and I saw him once, many years ago. He was a staple of the Branson scene for 30 years, and it seemed as though he would go on performing forever. Perhaps he is.
