REPORT ｜ Kenta Dedachi “Cozy notes Tour～Blossom～”

Text by Z11
Photo by Suzuka Fukuhara

Kenta Dedachi’s acoustic live series “Cozy notes” was held for the first time in Tokyo and Osaka in 2023. The series expanded into a national tour last fall and is back this spring as “Cozy notes Tour ~Blossom~”. This spring’s tour will be held in a total of seven cities, adding a Tokyo performance to the six cities visited last fall. This time, we will report on the final day, which was held at duo MUSIC EXCHANGE in Shibuya, Tokyo on Saturday, May 25th.

The opening song was a prologue to the world of music that Kenta has created, starting with a short version of “Long Long Time” and then leading to “Stay with me”. Kenta’s voice echoed through the hall, so quiet that the vibration of the strings could be felt. After touching on the message of “It’s been a long time” contained in the new song “Long Long Time”, he loudly declared the opening of the final performance of the tour, saying, “Let’s all enjoy it together, whether it’s been a long time or it’s the first time.” He introduced the tour by saying, “The subtitle of this tour is ‘Blossom’. ‘Blossom’ means ‘to make bloom’. I would like to deliver songs with a flower theme,” and performed “Remember Me,” which is based on an episode of poppies blooming on the cape of Malibu, California, where they visited for the music video shoot, and “Tattooed Hollywood,” which features jacaranda flowers in the music video.

The guitar plays a major role in acoustic live performances. The white-bodied rubber bridge guitar that Kenta made himself is decorated with the prefectural flowers of the cities visited on this tour, in keeping with the tour’s subtitle. And the flower of tonight’s venue, Tokyo, is the Somei-Yoshino cherry blossom. The theme song of the “Cozy notes Tour” was played on this special rubber bridge guitar. The warm, rolling sound that is unique to rubber bridge guitars is comfortable. In a complete change from the flow that was saturated with a cozy (= comfortable) atmosphere, he said, “This song is a song that I wrote exactly what I felt during the coronavirus. It was a difficult time, but looking back now, I think it’s a song that I could only have written at that time,” and then he moved on to “Better days.” In the next song, “Goldfish,” he made full use of the looper and created a dreamy, three-dimensional sound by improvising choruses.

“There are a lot of things in life. You have to look at the good things,” “Maybe singer-songwriters feel a lot of things, that’s why they can write songs. But there are also times when it’s really hard,” Kenta said, expressing the emotions he had been carrying up until now. The audience responded with warm cheers, and he called out, “There are a lot of things, but it’s gonna be alright,” and, led by the percussive guitar intro and the audience’s particularly loud claps, he performed “Walking In The Rain (Alright).” As the concert reached its climax, the excitement grew to a level that was hard to believe for an acoustic concert, and the audience sang along to the refrain of the phrase “flying” in the latest song “SHUNRAN.”

And then, almost the entire audience was invited to stand up and hear KOSEN, who has worked with Kenta on many productions as a sound producer. KOSEN, a special guest only for this Tokyo performance, joined on guitar to perform “Fly Away,” which heated up the venue even more as it is a standard song for live performances. Then, after a sudden spring storm of excitement, they cooled down and performed “Jasmine,” with hope for the future, saying, “Just as these flowers survive the winter season and bloom in spring, I hope we can move forward with gratitude for each and every thing,” and “Let’s look for gifts from God and live with gratitude.” The main part of the show ended with a performance of “Jasmine,” which was full of hope for the future.

Called by the audience’s calls for Kenta, he performed “Dandy Lion,” a song named after a flower that is related to the tour title “Blossom,” and responded to the encore. In response to the opening of the live, he performed the full version of “Long Long Time,” which was also set as the final song, singing live without a microphone, bringing the tour that lasted for about a month to a close.

While “Flower” means “a flower that does not bear fruit,” the subtitle of this tour, “Blossom,” means “a flower that bears fruit.” I hope that this tour will be a great reward for Kenta and the audience who came to the venue.

【event information】

『Kenta Dedachi Acoustic Live Cozy notes Tour ～Blossom～』
April 18, 2024 (Thursday) at Yokohama Mint Hall, Kanagawa
Sunday, April 21, 2024 at Shimei Hall, Kyoto
Saturday, April 27, 2024 at Heartland, Nagoya, Aichi
April 28, 2024 (Sun) at Fukuoka ROOMS
Saturday, May 11, 2024 at Sapporo, Hokkaido
May 12, 2024 (Sun) at Miyagi, Sendai retro BackPage
Saturday, May 25, 2024 at duo MUSIC EXCHANGE, Shibuya, Tokyo

■Kenta Dedachi Official Site