Takeshi Kitayama -- Tsugaru Otoko Bushi（津軽おとこ節）

This enka tune probably comes under the category of "You can take the man out of his hometown, but you can't take the hometown out of the man".

Yup, Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his songwriting pen name of Joji Hara（原譲二）was responsible for creating "Tsugaru Otoko Bushi" (A Tsugaru Man's Melody) for his deshi and son-in-law, enka singer Takeshi Kitayama（北山たけし）. This is his April 2018 single, and as would be the case for any traditional kayo with a geographical region, "man" and "melody" in the title, it's got a goodly amount of brio in the music featuring shamisen and shakuhachi.

According to the YouTube explanation for the above shortened video, "Tsugaru Otoko Bushi" was the single commemorating Kitayama's 15th anniversary in the singing business, and though he was actually born at the southern end of the nation in Fukuoka, the way that he proudly sings this particular enka, he sounds like a man born and bred in the northern part of the country in the snowy Tsugaru district of Aomori Prefecture. As I mentioned off the top, the lad may have left Tsugaru for the capital, but Tsugaru never left his heart, and he's probably more than happy to return to the home and hearth once his job is done south.