Shoji Tabuchi: East Meets the Louisiana Hayride

 May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and a perfect opportunity to look back at an earlier time in the career of a star musician from Japan, Shoji Tabuchi, who made Bossier City home for a decade in the 1970’s.  If you’ve visited the entertainment city in the Ozarks - Branson, Missouri - or know anyone who has within the past 40 years, you’ve likely heard of the showman with classical violin training, who reveres the country classics, and put enough flash into the performance to even make it Las Vegas-worthy. You may even know some of his ‘unlikely’ story as a young violinist growing up in Japan who set a goal to be a country music star in America, and attained that goal and then some. Here, we will look at some aspects of Shoji’s Bossier days, gleaned from the History Center bookshelves and newspaper resources. 

Shoji Tabuchi was born in Daishoji, Japan in 1944. He began studying the violin at the age of seven. He was trained classically, but like many in his country, he got caught up in enthusiasm for American country music. He was inspired by Howdy Forrester, fiddler for Roy Acuff, who toured Japan. The young Shoji determined that someday he’d go to the home of country music, America and to the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride, the country music radio show broadcast live from Shreveport through the 1950’s, with occasional comebacks, to be more specific. In 1967, he finally made it to America and eventually Nashville, TN, “Just to listen”.  He looked up Roy Acuff, who got him opportunities to play. Then he registered as a resident alien so he could stay longer. That made him eligible for the draft and he spent a couple years serving the United States during the Vietnam War. 

In his 2000 book, “Tillman Franks: I Was There When it Happened,” the Louisiana Hayride’s local musical legend Franks, who had then become a talent manager, got a call from a booking agent who insisted he found what Franks had been looking for, a fiddler for his Bossier City talent David Houston. The scout said the incredible fiddler he found, Shoji Tabuchi, lived in Wichita Kansas, was working as a lab or medical assistant at a hospital and playing music on the weekends. Tabuchi agreed to travel to Shreveport so they could hear him play. Tillman hired him on the spot. Tabuchi and his wife Mary Jo moved from Wichita to Bossier soon after. 

Shreveport-Bossier’s Louisiana Hayride had a nickname as “the cradle of the stars”.  One could say that it, or at least one of its stars, Tillman Franks, provided the cradle to Shoji’s stardom, too. Franks was so impressed with Shoji’s sound and showmanship, he had no intention of keeping him sequestered as backup. He gave him a top billing, too. Saying he didn’t want there to be “any surprises,” he billed Tabuchi as the “World’s Champion Japanese Fiddler,” a title he just grabbed out of thin air. Country music writer Townsend Miller, who was stunned by the performance of the breakout star with David Houston in Austin, TX, confirmed Tillman’s hunch when he wrote in the “Austin American” on April 15, 1972, “Tillman got more than a fiddler. He got a star, and he knows it.” 

Tillman Franks did know he had a star on his hands, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t let him go. Houston and Shoji were friends, and Houston was proud of the success of his fiddler, according to Franks. An article in the “Wichita Independent” of Wichita, Kansas, announced David Houston and Shoji performing at a jamboree there, and said that “David Houston will proudly tell you he is John’s (the then-very young son of Shoji and Mary Jo) godfather”. And he was the one who introduced Tabuchi to bass fishing, a favorite pastime of Tabuchi’s for years to come. But whatever the reason (and country music fans will proffer a variety), after about the mid-1970’s, Houston’s accolades were fading, while Shoji’s act was “burning up” the fiddle, and the stage. Houston felt Tillman’s time to promote him was being diluted by his efforts on behalf of Tabuchi, as well as the Shreveport NFL star with dreams of a music career, Terry Bradshaw. So Tillman Franks cut Shoji as a client at the end of August, 1976.

It was also not long after the split with Franks that Shoji and Mary Jo split. Tabuchi would not say, though it appeared, according to Franks, that all the time on the road wasn’t helping the young family. When he discovered Branson on his way home from a concert in Illinois and was invited to play a 6-month engagement there in early 1980’s, he took the opportunity to stay put for a while. Ultimately, he moved there, met his second wife, Dorothy, and in May 1990 he opened his own theater and performed with his wife and daughter. 

Shoji’s Branson shows and theater were wildly successful, and the city of Branson recently honored the family for its impact on the community and its businesses. According to Franks, however, success was especially important to Shoji for earning the honor and respect of his family back in Japan, most notably his father. (Shoji’s move to the United States was made with the clandestine help of his mother while his father was away on a business trip.) Now, however, Tabuchi is pushing 80 and perhaps entering another new chapter. Performances paused during covid. The family did a year-long comeback in a more intimate theatre. Shoji’s 1990 grand theatre complex in Branson is currently up for sale. 

Do you have, or know someone who has, photographs of northwest Louisiana music history that can be shared with the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center? Visit us at the History Center, or ask us how to use our online catalog, which includes digitized images. We are located at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok

Images: 

• Shoji Tabuchi, dubbed the “Japanese Cowboy” in the January 3rd, 1971 Wichita (Kansas) Eagle
• Advertisement in the Bossier Press on June 29, 1972, for David Houston and the Persuaders and Shoji Tabuchi performing in Bossier City for “I Love America Week”

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Louisiana Hayride: The Bossier Parish Years Begin

Source: The Shreveport Journal, Oct. 29, 1974

While doing some research on a different subject, I came across an article about the Louisiana Hayride Kitchen in Bossier. Reading this intrigued me. I asked a coworker that has lived in Bossier City her whole life, and I was surprised to learn that not only was Bossier Parish home for the Louisiana Hayride, but it was here longer than it was in Shreveport.

Many of my readers may recall the Louisiana Hayride Kitchen and Auditorium here in Bossier Parish just north of Bossier City on Benton Road from 1974 - 1987 in what looked like a big red barn. But if you are like me and you have not lived here all your life, or maybe the Hayride was a little bit before your time, you might operate under the assumption that the Louisiana Hayride was always in Shreveport at the Municipal Auditorium.

The Louisiana Hayride began in Shreveport in 1948 and had a long run of weekly shows spotlighting young country and western talent until 1960. Rock and Roll broke out in the U.S. during the 1950s and grew in popularity; it is often cited as the reason why the Louisiana Hayride began to fizzle out. However, Frank Page, former producer of the original Louisiana Hayride, believed, “one of the things that helped kill Louisiana Hayride was the lack of supportive facilities.”

Kent and Page were passionate about bringing the Louisiana Hayride back to life. Thanks to their passion and for the help of eight savvy local businessmen, the Louisiana Hayride was revived under the name of Hayride, U.S.A, Inc. David Kent, Johnny Robinson, Frank Page, Bill Hanna, Gus Mijalis, Charles Scott, Byrum Teekell, Clarence Wells, Jr., Quentin Hargrove, and Mike Powell, were the original board of directors of the newly formed Hayride, U.S.A.

Although it started out with these ten men, in Feb. of 1975, Kent bought out the other board members. Kent and Page were determined to see this venture through, and they knew that there was plenty of local talent to be developed. While in its first year, the program was known as Hayride U.S.A., but in 1975 the title reverted to Louisiana Hayride.

"Hayride - USA Building Nears Completion on Benton Road North of Bossier City"
Source: The Shreveport Times July 28, 1974; Times Photo by Billy Upshaw

Knowing that the Municipal Auditorium was in disrepair, the decision was made to build a new facility in Bossier Parish. Jan. 3, 1974, the announcement ran in The Shreveport Journal, “County Music Auditorium Planned,” stating that “A 3,000-seat country music auditorium to cost $300,000 will be constructed on the Benton Road north of Bossier City in June.”

Apparently, during the planning phase for the auditorium, the decision was made to make it a 1,500-seat auditorium instead of 3,000-seat. Later, in 1975 the Hayride Kitchen featuring country and western food, which included the Haystack Lounge just to the left when you entered the restaurant, opened adjacent to the Louisiana Hayride auditorium. It was a large rustic two-level restaurant that could seat 200 people. In 1982, at the rear of the auditorium, there was a glass-enclosed restaurant called the Hay Baler that offered the same great food as the Hayride Kitchen, in buffet style.

In a press conference on Jul. 24, 1974, it was announced that Hayride U.S.A. signed two Arkansas natives, Harry Blanton and Dan Emory, to the Hayride roster. Frank Page also announced that the new “country music auditorium will open in previews on Aug. 10 and 17,
with dedication ceremonies on Aug. 17, and kick off its regular schedule Aug. 24 with country songstress Sammi Smith as headliner.”

In an article by Elain King of The Shreveport Times dated Aug. 12, 1974, she states that on opening night, the Hayride drew in a crowd of “about 1,300 people, many over 30 and many family groups with preteen-age children in the audience.” “The audience interrupted Dave Kent from Jordan and Booth with applause when he said, ‘We’re bringing back something we should never have lost,’ referring to the Louisiana Hayride sponsored by Radio Station KWKH in earlier years.”

Check back next week to learn how the Louisiana Hayride came to an end after thirteen years in Bossier. You can also visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City, to learn more about the Hayride.

By: Amy Robertson