Saturday, Sept. 13, 2003

Greg Irwin looks back to the year 2000 and can hardly believe how his life has turned around. "I was ready to quit singing doyo. I was not happy in my personal life. I was questioning living in Japan and my career seemed to have hit the glass ceiling."

Doyo, it should be explained, is a genre of Japanese song. Literally, "children's songs," the themes center around the love of home, family, childhood friends and nature. Most Japanese remember them with a deep sense of nostalgia.

Although in recent years they are being set aside one by one, the songs were taught as a part of school curriculum from the Taisho Period until quite recently. This means that for Japanese people over a certain age, they strike a chord of powerful emotions.

Greg recalls giving a concert in New York. "All my life I dreamed that I would sing on Broadway. When I finally performed there in 1994, I was singing doyo at the Lincoln Center before a sold-out audience of mostly Japanese. Everyone sang along in English and Japanese and oh, the tears!"

Now he is preparing for another major concert, this time in Japan. On May 21, his first major debut album, "Blue Eyes," was released by Victor Entertainment. The title refers not simply to the fact that Greg is a blonde, blue-eyed American, but also to the title of one of the tracks, "The Blue-eyed Doll," (Aoi me no ningyo). The song is about an American doll that accidentally lands up in Japan and is very homesick. A little Japanese girl befriends her and she never feels lonely again.

He will be in concert at the Sogetsu Hall in Aoyama, Tokyo, on Oct. 3. The first act will feature the doyo songs in English and Japanese from the album "Blue Eyes" and the second act will celebrate folk songs from Japan, the U.S., and the U.K.

"I hope it will make people think again about what is precious in life. Doyo is healing music," Greg says, "which is why the album can by found in the healing section of record stores."

Greg grew up in Wisconsin, in what he openly describes as a dysfunctional home. His father drank and greatly disliked the Japanese. By contrast, his mother was "like an angel who taught me that prejudice was always wrong." Bullied through elementary school, it was by appearing on stage that he gained acceptance, by stealing the show in his first school production.

With his amazing natural talent, a deep baritone voice, and gentle character, he landed the part of Jesus in the musical "Godspell" in his first year of university. However, after studying music and theater at the universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota respectively, he "escaped to Hawaii" in his senior year.

It was working as a pedicab driver there that he first met Japanese people. The first Japanese he learned was "Norimasen ka?" (Would you like a ride?). Japanese people seemed so refined, gentle, and trusting. I felt at peace with them.

During his first stay in Japan 20 years ago, he did a homestay, taught English, and partied for three years in Roppongi. Then he went backpacking in Asia for six months. Back in Hawaii, an enka producer heard him singing and promised to make him a star. "I returned to Japan and tried it. He put me in onsens for 10,000 yen a night," sharing a room with elderly "former stars" who chain smoked and got drunk every night. Being a singer is a gift but it can also be miserable.

In 1987 he went back to university, this time to Hawaii, to study Japanese. Donald Ritchie taught him Japanese film, and Greg wrote a paper on the Kurosawa film "Ikiru" that merited much attention. "I even became a Buddhist."

Then he had another offer to turn him into a star, this time on Japanese radio. Winning the Mayor's Prize as a DJ on Yokohama FM gave Greg his own nightly program, called "Amusement Hotline." He also learned about the world of voiceovers and it was primarily this work that kept him here. The Irwin voice became the voice of Nissan, Coca Cola, Kanebo, just about every major account you can think of. "My voiceover resume is really quite shocking. In the States, I'd be a millionaire. Here there is no system to really protect artists."

In 1994, through a visit to Nashville, he got into songwriting. When a Japanese producer heard his voice, realized he spoke Japanese and could write lyrics, he gave Greg a task. "He gave me 10 songs, saying they were doyo, children's songs, and could I translate them into English? I ended up translating 25. I've now translated at least a hundred."

Greg says that when he began translating he was often reduced to tears. "The songs focus on adult emotions reflecting on childhood and life. Some of the songwriters died young. They were really the Mozarts of Japan. There is no music of such high quality being taught in schools today."

Deciding that the songs were treasures, he recorded them and was told that he had found his lifework. His songs were later used to back an English Conversation Series on NHK. An indie CD he made came to the attention of this newspaper, and a CD book called "Japan's Best Loved Songs of the Season" sold 26,000 copies; a second CD book sold 8,000, still very respectable. "Then I got an offer to sing on a cruise ship going around the world and thought, why not?"

Hitting 40 hit hard. He wondered if his one-man doyo crusade would ever be recognized. Where was he heading? He quit drinking alcohol, went to Mexico to take stock, and experienced vibrational healing. When he came back, his life turned right around. "I seemed to be reaching people with my songs in a new way."

Cleaning house in 2002, the phone rang. "It was the Japan Doyo Association telling me that I had won their first ever Japan Doyo Culture Prize." Later he appeared with the Yasuda Sisters, a popular doyo duo, and their producer decided to launch Greg as a major doyo star.

The CD is the first step, the coming concert is the second. "The record industry has finally invested in doyo. This really is a whole new ballgame. My ambition? To export doyo in the same way that haiku or sushi was exported, all around the world. Everyone knows the song 'Sakura, Sakura.' Well, there are a lot more songs like it, and all are just as beautiful, heart-warming, and universally appealing."

Tickets for Greg Irwin in Concert, Friday, Oct. 3 at Sogetsu Hall (Doors open at 6 p.m. for a 6:30 start). Tel: (03) 5785-0380 Web site: www.gregirwin.com

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