20130308

Japanese Bluegrass Guitarist Maro Kawabata Dead at age 51

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We learned from an on-line guitar forum of the passing of one of Bluegrass’s best ambassadors, Maro Kawabata who died suddenly this week on Wednesday, March 6th.

Maro's story is one of persistence and determination, leading him to school in the United States, back home to Japan where he married his American bride and then to return to the USA to raise his family in the midst of his musical Odyssey.

Maro Kawabata was born in Kyoto Japan. At the age of 12, he first saw Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys perform on Japanese television; he thought the music was very inspirational. Soon there after, Maro asked his mother for some spending money to purchase albums by Bill Monroe. Motivated by Monroe, Maro and his younger brother started to play music together.

The first band Maro ever played in was called The Riverside Brothers; the band name incorporates the direct translation of the Kawabata.

Read more about Maro on his website.

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