What language barrier?

We entered the tiny restaurant on Saturday and were seated in a cozy back corner, right where the smells of Italian food being prepared mingled in a delicious haze of tomato, garlic and fresh-baked bread.

We had time to get settled in and order beers before the music started -- a singer/songwriter on guitar and a bass player who added a little tambourine shake from time to time. The fare ranged from acoustic folk to guitar-driven pop, all sung beautfully and movingly by a man who graciously thanked the audience between songs and even took time to mingle after his show.

The place: Tokyo. The set list: Beats me. The show was by my friend Yoichiro Takagi, who goes by tkg416 when he's being a rock star, and it was almost entirely in Japanese. But interestingly, that didn't matter one little bit -- certainly didn't diminish the experience. Sure, I might have enjoyed the show even more had I been able to understand the lyrics (a line here and there was in English, so I heard enough to know he wasn't singing about killing cats or having a celery fetish). But not having the ability to understand the words gave me a chance to focus on the quality of his voice and guitar-playing -- I wasn't bored for a second.

Listening to music in a foreign language -- one you don't know -- is a great way to remind yourself that music is powerful medium for language, but it requires more than just pretty words. Lyrics are a great form of communication, but the sound of a voice and the use of instruments can be -- should be -- just as expressive. I think that's a concept most alt.country and bluegrass artists are well aware of. You can't doubt for a second that Sam Bush, for example, is telling you just as much through his mandolin or fiddle as he is with his voice when he's singing. It's why Alison Krauss without her band would be a girl with a purty voice, but with the band is an artist.

So try this little experiment sometime: Listen to an artist who sings in another language, one you don't know a word of. Try to guess what a song is about from the voice tone and instrumentation. Unless you have a friend nearby who can translate, you may never know if your guess is correct, but it doesn't really matter. Because by the end of the song you'll have had a great time just listening to music in a new way.

Need a suggestion? Try Yoichiro! On his home page you'll see little yellow squares with a speaker in them, click away to hear one-minute clips. I suggest "Ans." (though there's a little bit of English, so it's cheating) and "口実は闇の中へ."