Published : Sept. 28, 2012 - 19:24
Shin Joong-hyun, also known as Korea’s “Godfather of Rock,” is to perform alongside American folk musician Rodriguez and U.K. singer-guitarist Michael Chapman at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday evening, local time.
The event was planned as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Light in the Attic Records, an independent record label which released the work of such artists as Betty Davis and the Black Angels. In 2011, the record label issued Shin’s first-ever globally-released album, “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea’s Shin Joong-hyun.”
Legendary rock guitarist Shin Joong-hyun (Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald)
Born in 1938, Shin, a self-taught guitarist, started out teaching music lessons before eventually playing for the U.S. Army in Korea in 1957 under the stage name Jackie Shin.
Despite the constant uphill battles trying to ward off governmental and political suppression of his music, he eventually evolved into the musician who would lead the Korean psychedelic rock movement in the ’60s and ’70s.
He was the first Asian musician to ever receive the coveted Fender Custom Shop Tribute Series Guitar, along with rock-and-roll legends like Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen. His has two sons, Shin Dae-cheol and Shin Yu-cheol, who are following in his footsteps as respected rock guitarists in Korea.
By Julie Jackson (
juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)