The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 21, 1988, Page 4, Image 4
Jim LeBlartc
'Takin' til
Homecorr
By JOLEEN FIREK
Staff writer
Jim LeBlanc didn't come to South
Carolina for a musical career, but
music is certainly his business now.
The first release tor the 31-year-old
vocalist/guitarist ? the cassette
Takin' Time to Play, containing nine
original songs ? is now available at
local record stores.
LeBlanc will appear from 4:30
p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Russell
House patio for the university's
Homecoming Picnic. His repertoire
includes popular folk and rock'n'roll
music of the '60s, '70s and '80s.
LeBlanc hopes to draw a crowd of
students who want to get involved
and said he likes an audience that
taps its toes and sings along.
LeBlanc has been performing professionally
for three-and-a-half
years, entertaining audiences of
diverse ages. "I had two objectives
when 1 started performing," LeBlanc
said. "One was to live the dream of
doing music that I've always had.
The other was to have fun with people
at the same time."
He plays the harmonica, as well as
six- and 12-string guitars. Acoustic
interpretations of songs by the
Beatles, Jimmy Buffet, Harry
Chapin, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens and
numerous other artists are interwoven
in his shows with original
pieces.
LeBlanc began teaching himself
guitar chords at the age of nine and
learned the songs of Dylan, Jim
Croce and the Beatles by singing and
playing along with the radio. He
started writing songs as a teenager,
he said.
"As I was growing up, music was
more of a therapy than a central
theme in my life," he said. "Yet, it
was always in the back of my mind."
LeBlanc left his home in Tupper
Lake, N.Y., to attend USC, where he
graduated with a business/marketing
degree. He then worked as a purchasing
agent for the 1980 Winter Olympics
in Lake Placid, N.Y. Later, he
became USC's purchasing director of
youth services.
Soon restless and dissatisfied with
the business world, LeBlanc decided
to pursue his music full time. He left
the university one-and-a-half years
ago.
"Sure, it was risky," he said.
"Yet, it was a matter of taking the
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Jim LeBlanc
chance and going for it."
He began performing in Columbia
nightclubs and then moved to loca- ^
tions along the coast, including
Charleston, the Isle of Palms,
Pawley's Island and Beaufort.
LeBlanc performs regularly at ^
local clubs, such as Pugs in Five x
Points, Plato's in Dutch Square and '
Yesterday's in St. Andrews. He will
appear at Muldoon's Oct. 1.
"There is nothing else I would j
want to do more than what I'm doing j.
right now. If I can keep writing and v
recording and playing music, then I c
consider that success."
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practice 'three
at weekend cla
By MARY CATHERINE CARROLL
Staff writer
Yoshitaka Sakakibara of USC's
Language anu Liiciaiuie uepanmeni k
important it is for Japanese children t<
their education when they come to t
States with their parents on business.
Because of this, he founded and no\
Saturday school offered by the US<
Language Department and the Depa
Education so that these children can con
ning during their stay here.
This program, similar to schools in L<
and New York, is an added incentive fo
firms to locate in the state.
"I have lots of opportunities to meet
businessmen considering investments
Carolina. The first question they alw;
whether we have a Saturday program
Japanese parents are very conscious a
children's education," Sakakibara said.
The Supplementary Japanese Learni
charges $35 per month for
tary-school-aged children and $25 p
for preschoolers.
The program receives assistance
Japanese government and is presently s<
from South Carolina's government.
The school is in its third year of opet
has 24 pupils from Columbia, Or
Camden and other surrounding areas. C
held every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 i
Curriculum is purely Japanese. Using
Newly wed s
By The Associated Press IV
NEW YORK ? Newly wed and tl
Dusy in her career as singer and com- Ji
Doser, Carly Simon dreams of having p
i little house in the suburbs. tr
"How 1 picture it is a little stone IV
louse, with maybe two or three
bedrooms, tiny, though," she said. S(
'I'll do all the housework myself. ?
With a nice living room with sf
ireplace and a cozy kitchen. 01
"It doesn't need to have a lot of
ground, but it needs to have trailing A
ines, wisteria or honeysuckle, and 01
lefinitely a magnolia tree if possible. th
That's what 1 want to escape to on al
veekends from the city." al
This is not, however, a woman Y
ooking forward to retirement. She
lad a new album out in August^
vhich was taped during her first con- re
ert performance in eight years. gi
She's also scoring a movie for G
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textbooks, the children le
from the struction given in Japan
seking aid American schools durin
lessons are also taught in
ation and The children are not
angeburg, class but are assigned "<
Classes are week," Sakakibara said.
D.m. With a new Japanese
Japanese and Fuji Film coming to
i a a -mm-m -4- f
ungwruer l
like Nichols that will include a love
teme she wrote for her husband,
im Hart. And she has done two
rivate concerts that were her conibution
to a benefit auction on
lartha's Vineyard.
The Arista Records album Carly
imon's Greatest Hits Live was taped
- and so was a Home Box Office
>ecial ? at one of the two concerts
n a Martha's Vineyard beach.
"I was promoting the Coming
round Again album, which came
jt in April 1987; consequently,
lere are many songs on the live
bum that also are on that album. 1
so did 'You're So Vain,' 'L,o.ving.
ou Is the Right Thing To Do' and
Jobody Does It Better.'
"My favorites are songs that never
ally got exposure, and I wanted to
ve a second life, like 'Never Been
one,' which is my favorite song on
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nts of the Supplementary Japanese Learn
he USC foreign Language and Literature
tessmen who are in the United States, keej
instructs them in mathematics.
:arn mathematics with in- is expecting m
ese. The children attend "After their
g the week where their or four years,
i Japanese. to Japan," Sal
graded in the Saturday day school, mt
i lot of homework every reading and w
"They also
company in Charleston justing to the .
Greenwood, Sakakibara as the culture <
cuiy Simon k
the album, and 'It Happens tvery
Day,'" she said in a recent interview 1
in her Manhattan apartment. <
"It's funny how certain songs that 1
I've written I always thought were i
terrific songs, but they were never I
picked up from albums as singles, or :
they were on albums that were flops, <
or they were never recorded
properly." i
The curse of the recording in- I
dustry, she said, is radio's top 40
playlists. "It kills your artistic f
motivation," she said, but credited '
Arista Records President Clive Davis s
for helping to keep her going. ?
Carly Simon became Mrs. Jim t
Hart on Dec. 23. The couple met on a
train in upstate New York in May li
1987. p
"He was an insurance salesman. tl
He said saying that got rid of a lot of f
people at cocktail parties," she said. b
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ing School, founded and directed by
' department. The school, set up for
ps the children fluent in reading and
ore new students,
stay in the U.S. of as long as three
these children will eventually return
<akibara said, "if not for our Saturtny
of them might have trouble with
riting in Japanese."
might encounter difficulty in readJapanese
educational system as well
or social system," he said.
eeps busy
"He riveted me. I was just
fascinated. It didn't matter what he
did. I'd never gone out with a man
kvho had a straight job before. I'm
used to artists and musicians. He
hought I was one of those female
singers but he wasn't sure which
3ne."
Hart, who had already begun a
lovel, quit his job and moved to
vlartha's Vineyard with Simon.
Simon says her well-known stage
"right comes from claustrophobia.
'It probably stems from a childhood
itammer," she said. "I was always
ifraid of being humiliated by having
o talk in public.
"On a stage 1 feel trapped by the
ights, as if 1 can't get off. Then I
tanic. Outside (last summer on Marha's
Vineyard) it was a lot better. I
elt there was more air for me to
reathe and I felt less trapped."
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