Enka Blues

YouTube: "Jero-Enka Singer"

The first song that Jero sings (釜山港へ帰れ, Pusan ko e kaera) is actually a cover of the Korean trot singer Cho Yong-pil's "Come back to Pusan Port" (돌아와요 부산항에)

I'm currently overloaded with work. Projects are piling up like Baekdu-san and I'm just trying to stay afloat on a day-to-day basis. When I start going into these modes, I sometimes turn to one form of escapism or another as a way of coping (or avoiding...). This practice, of course, decreases productivity despite acting as a temporary salve. 

So, for the past few days, I've developed a mild obsession with JERO, aka Jerome White from Philly, who has recently risen to stardom in Japan as the country's first African-American enka singer. I first heard about Jero from my Japanese homestay parents last summer, both of whom were impressed with his singing abilities. It wasn't until recently that I retrieved the mental note and started searching online for information about him. (Yes, bad follow-up skills.)

What I've been most impressed with is his story...learning enka from his Japanese grandmother as a child, receiving a degree in information science at the University of Pittsburgh, and then going to Japan in his mid-20s to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an enka artist. His debut single "Umiyuki" ("Ocean Snow") is a chart topper in Japan and he's now a veritable celebrity on Japanese television.

I prefer watching his renditions of "old-school" enka (link provided at the top of post) over the tricked-out "Umiyuki" - and what is even more entertaining to watch are the reactions he elicits from his Japanese fans.

OK, back to work...really!