Yesterday, I wrote about enka singer Hiroshi Miyama's（三山ひろし）debut single "Hitokoi Sakaba"（人恋酒場）and the fact that I'd assumed that it was one of his newer singles when he performed it on NHK's "Songs of Japanese Spirit" last Saturday, only to find out it was released many years ago. Well, I had the opposite thought process when I saw veteran singer Mirei Kitahara（北原ミレイ）on the same show.
Kitahara has been in the music business since 1970 when she came out with "Zange no Neuchi mo Nai" (ざんげの値打ちもない) so it's been well over 50 years now, and when she came out to perform her "Bara no Ame" (Rose Rain), I'd assumed that it was one of her older songs. Uh-uh. Actually, this is her most recent single, her 59th to be exact, released in January this year. But I can be forgiven for making that initial assumption because the blurb under this YouTube video describes "Bara no Ame" as possessing that nostalgic Showa Era dancehall sound.
I can certainly agree with that assessment. It's really quite the dandy piece of Mood Kayo with the spicy Latin horns and the jangly electric guitar. "Bara no Ame" does take me back to the 1980s at least and at the age of 73, Kitahara still can sing and twirl around like a lady half her age. Mami Takubo（田久保真見）was the lyricist here while Yoshitaka Higuchi（樋口義高）composed the snazzy melody.
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