There is a strange gravity to those who seem entirely unbothered by the weight of expectation. They move through rooms with a careless grace, leaving a trail of minor disruptions that somehow only add to their charm. It is a phenomenon well documented in the annals of pop culture, from the brooding rebels of mid-century cinema to the unkempt guitarists of the early two-thousands indie sleaze...

You hear the first strike of the drum and instantly know this is not a history lesson. Folk music often gets treated with too much reverence, placed carefully on a pedestal where no one can touch it. Remon Nakanishi takes a completely different approach. He grabs these centuries old communal songs, drags them into the studio, and surrounds them with some of the most infectious...