Searching for Nakashi: Guitar of the Hot Springs Village

Berklee Professor DJ Hatfield (@shoutacre) will be MC’ing and singing a Taiwanese Nakashi song (according to @Jack_Hsu’s tweet today) at Passport2Taiwan Fest at Union Square on May 30, 2010.

I'm particularly psyched about the strong Nakashi presence at the event. Hatfield’s song of choice is 溫泉鄉的吉他 (roughly translated at the "The Guitar of the Hot Springs Village"). I remembered hearing this song on a cassette titled “Taiwanese Oldies” that I took from my mom’s collection last year. The sad minor-scale melody and slow “cha-cha” rhythm (with a guiro sample!) in the song resemble many other songs of its kind - Taiwanese/Holo version of Japanese enka. My Youtube search gives me a sense that this is a popular Nakashi (那卡西) standard even now.

I love this performance by Ah-Lan Band. It was put on by the Beitou Nakashi Cultural Development Association. The spinning disco light, keyboard and sax melancholia, and the heavy vocal reverb project through a cloud of sadness. It looks like we might be accompanying DJ Hatfield’s singing at Passport2Taiwan. Stay in touch for details!

[This post (originally here) represents my new focus: a "Search for Nakashi" project. This series of content exclusively related to Nakashi will be posted on website for Dzian!, my nakashi surf rock band. Read an introspective post on Dzian! and my personal relationship to this music.]