Akira Kobayashi -- Guitar wo Motta Wataridori（ギターを持った渡り鳥）

Met up with a couple of my foodie-and-talk buddies earlier this afternoon for lunch at an izakaya downtown and then for dessert at a new place called Nine Tails Coffee Bar where the next big Japanese food item might be born: dorayaki. When I got home at around 4 this afternoon, the telly was already onto the weekly Saturday kayo kyoku show where I got to see a singer crooning an old Akira Kobayashi（小林旭）tune of yesteryear.

When I heard the timbre of the voice and the loping melody, I kinda figured that it was an Akira Kobayashi kayo, and sure enough, the fellow was covering the theme song for the 1959 movie "Guitar wo Motta Wataridori". Now, according to Jisho.org, wataridori refers only to a migratory bird, but I hardly think that the star, Kobayashi, would appreciate being called anything avian (aside from a hawk or any other bird of prey), so I think probably it would be better to translate the movie title and the song title as "The Guitar-Toting Wanderer".

In the movie, Kobayashi stars as a former detective who, for whatever reason, decides on a major career change and becomes a wandering balladeer. During his travels, he ends up in the wilds of Hokkaido where he has to use his old skills to help people. Apparently, the movie became so successful that another seven movies were made to create the "Wataridori" series.

In terms of the title tune, Kobayashi and his slightly sandpaper-y voice put forth a tune that would be just as comfortable in the American Old West as it did in Japan's northernmost prefecture. I can even hear the horse clops. In fact, looking at the above clips, I thought that kid was yelling "Shane!".

Sou Nishizawa（西沢爽）took care of the lyrics while Shoichi Komabayashi（狛林正一）provided the music. Kobayashi had one busy year in the music business since in 1959, he released a total of 9 singles according to his J-Wiki biography.