Machiko, the Tai Chi teaching Blue Grass Queen

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My wife, Anne, has taken Tai Chi for the last four or five years from a Japanese born woman named Machiko. Machiko is a woman of about 68 who studied for years to achieve the ability to teach her many classes and the exercise has done Anne a world of good. Machiko is single these days and another part of her life is as a guitar playing blue grass singer. She sings with a trio, sometimes a quartet if there is a fiddler. We went to a house concert last week she did at a student’s very nice home. It was a benefit suggested by her students to raise money to trim some dangerous oak tree limbs from trees in Machiko’s back yard. This needs to be done before her annual birthday party in August, attended by many of her Tai Chi “family” of students. I got a special invitation to attend the party (limited by space to students only) since I helped put away chairs and clean up some after the house party. She even wrote me a thank you note invitation. Her band, “Wild Flower” consists of Machiko on guitar and strong vocals, Bob, a pretty good mandolin player and singer, and a bass player/singer named Ed. They played for two hours straight that night and actually get some paying gigs. Wild Flower is really a lot of fun to hear. At least twenty-five people were at the show and contributed to the cause. Anne tells me that many of the students will add to the fund. Machiko only charges $55 per month for her classes and her students all love her.