Scene Maker Q&A: Minneapolis guitarist Dakota Dave Hull records live in Japan

Not many Minnesota musicians have performed in Japan. Dakota Dave Hull might be the first based in the Land of 10,000 Bands to record a live album in Japan.

The distinguished guitar picker from Minneapolis recorded almost all of his 33 concerts in Japan this year and edited them into “Live in Japan,” a 13-track collection of acoustic instrumentals.

Hull will sell you a CD (he’s a one-man operation) or you can stream it via Bandcamp. He’ll tell you what real sushi tastes like and a few other things about his regular trips to Japan for more than a decade. Here are excerpts.

Q: Why did you decide to do a live in Japan album?

A: I’ve been traveling in Japan with the exception of COVID for about the last 13 or 14 years. This year, the schedule was such I was pretty sure I would get enough what I consider really good performances to be able to pull it off. I did 33 shows in 33 different venues in about six weeks. Major cities — Sapporo, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka — and some smaller cities. I recorded almost all of them. I carried a little portable recorder and my own mic and it’s easy to record — solo guitar and one mic. I was playing pretty good at least at some of them.

Q: Where did you perform?

A: They’re mostly quite small places, anywhere from 50 people on the high end and they can be tiny enough that you might have an audience of 10 or even less. That’s OK. In Japan, people go out to listen to music. The cover charges are higher and the places make most of their money on the drinks. You’ll pay maybe 30, 35 bucks cover charge plus have to buy a couple of drinks.

Q: How did you land these gigs?

A The first time I went I was a guest of Tokio Uchida, who is sort of a hotshot in the Japanese acoustic guitar scene. I was recommended by Duck Baker, the guitarist who had worked with him. He hired a guy to do the opening set, Takasi Hamada, who is a fabulous ragtime guitarist. The next time Takasi booked a tour for the two of us. On another tour, I met Xavier Ohmura. Now we’ll do duo gigs, then trio gigs, then duo gigs with the other guy.

Q: For your gigs in Minnesota, you often show up with three or four instruments. How many guitars did you take to Japan?

A: I took a guitar and a guitar/banjo. I decided next year I’ll be taking one guitar. I’m getting up there and carrying all that crap is a little much at this point. I turned 74 in Japan this year. The biggest issue is carrying around merchandise, CDs and so forth.

Q: Do you wear your signature Hawaiian shirts to the gigs?

A: I do. People like them. Most of mine are not really Hawaiian; they’re African and I’ve got some Thai ones and I’ve even got a couple of Japanese ones.

Q: You don’t sing but you talk between songs. How’s your Japanese?

A: I probably know about 10 words. Knowing the word for “thank you” gets you a fair amount of mileage. Fortunately for me, most Japanese people have some English. The signage and directions are typically bilingual until you get into certain rural areas.

Q: Do they know where “Dakota” is?

A: Some do, some don’t. If somebody asks and doesn’t think it’s my name, if you look on the map of the U.S. and in the North, it’s right in the middle. Most Japanese people know more about America than Americans know about Japan. Sadly.

Q: How did you get the nickname Dakota Dave?

A: I grew up in Fargo. So when I first came to the Twin Cities in 1969 and started playing at the coffeehouses, one of the guys that made posters for the New Riverside Café just did it — Dakota Dave Hull showed up on a poster. I thought: “Yeah, that’s kind of easy to remember.” It’s been there ever since.

Q: How’s the food in Japan?

A: I love it. Fortunately, the guys I work with over there are kind of foodies and so am I. I’ve learned a lot. I never understood sushi until I had it over there; it’s right out of the water. One of the pieces was eel and my friend didn’t tell me what it was and I probably wouldn’t have eaten it. But I did and it wasn’t bad. Japan also has a fabulous coffee scene, which I’m into in a big way.

Q: How do you travel to these gigs?

A: We do some flying between cities, a lot of bullet trains, in a metro like Tokyo subway and part of the tour is done by van.

Q: How’s the album selling in Japan?

A: I just sent over a box of CDs. I had some orders from Japan. Xavier will mail them within Japan, which is way cheaper. Most people in Japan, more so than here, they like hard copies of music. They’ll get you to sign it. They’ll maybe hold it up and stand next to you for a picture. All that stuff is a huge part of their culture. You might spend an hour after a show talking to anybody that wants to talk to you.

Q: Will you do a CD release party over there?

A: Those guys will arrange that and publicize them. They might want to have a CD release event at every gig ‘cause they’re all different places.

Q: How about a CD release party in the Twin Cities?

A: It might be a good thing to do a concert right before I leave on the next tour for Japan, probably in early March.

Q: How much touring do you do annually in the States nowadays?

A: Before COVID, it was really picking 100 or 120 [gigs] or so. Since COVID, it’s less and I’ve been spending more time in the studio. During the pandemic, I was doing online shows. It’s not gotten back to the level it was beforehand and I’m not really sure I want it to. I can still do it. I’m not ready to retire from that. Dealing with all the details when you’re not a rock star and you have a new CD coming out, you get orders and you pack the envelopes and take them to the post office. That stuff, I’m doing. That’s not a complaint; that’s a fact. I do it all. If I don’t, it doesn’t get done.