Phimpha Phonsiri | It's Red!

Listen to the third track


Give track 11 some attention

Reupped  on May 24, 2015, by reader request here.

Have I really never shared this fabulous example of, uh, well ... what is it, exactly? I was going to use Peter Doolan's term, "work station luk thung," but it's not that, exactly. (And, thanks Peter, for the singer and title.) I'm no longer sure where I picked it up, but the most likely place is Thai-Cam Video (5230 Southeast Foster Road, Portland, Ore.), where I got most of my Cambodian and Lao music, and a bit of my Thai stuff as well.

Exhausted and wanting to catch a few quick Zs before heading over to friends' house to watch Project Runway--I baked a nice loaf of rosemary sourdough for them--or I'd stick around and talk longer. Maybe tomorrow; I've got the day off.

Molam Douangpheng | Sout Yot Molam Siphandone

Listen to a track from this CD as part of last week's Bodega Pop Live

Grab the whole CD here

Track list c/o Peter Doolan (who also supplied singer name + album title):

01. lam siphandone

02. khap som

03. lam siphandone

04. khap som

The owner of the Vientiane Asian Grocery Store in Seattle's Othello neighborhood recommended this wonderful album to me and I took his advice -- smart move on my part. Nothing but this woman's incredibly soulful, colorful voice with khaen accompaniment. During the aforementioned show last week, listener Hyde requested that I post this -- and, so, here it is.

Somphone Phetnamsanh | Broken Heart

 

Break your heart across the first track 

 
Allow track 8 to smash into smaller pieces what remains of your heart after having heard the first track 

Pound your heart into dust.

It almost never happens with proper names, and it isn't going to happen again soon with Somphone Phetnamsanh's, but prior to my posting of this album, had you typed SP's full name into the search field on the home page belonging to Larry Page and Sergey Brin's multinational corporation providing internet-related products and services, including internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies, you'd have received the following message:

Your search - somphone phetnamsanh - did not match any documents.

It's baffling. Especially considering the Fort Knox-level anti-copyright infringement warnings printed on the verso of Broken Heart's cover sleeve:

Equally perplexing is the complete absence of Sainuphieng Music Productions on the web as well. Baffling, in part, because the CD, CD jewel case and CD cover are all in what appear to be brand-spanking-new condition. 

I just typed Sainuphieng Music Productions' address, 4468 Breckenridge Way, Sacramento, CA, into Google Maps then clicked on Street View:

As you'll see, there is no sign of life in that house, which looks utterly empty through the windows. The lawn--unlike those belonging to the houses on either side--is dead and brown. There is a massive white industrial grade trash bin in the driveway, filled to the brim. The photo, by Google, has a 2011 copyright date. 

So it's a mystery who Somphone Phetnamsanh is, or was, and when this music was recorded. But what is clear is that he recorded Broken Heart at SNP Music Production, in Sacramento, Calif., or, at the very least, he used SNP's workstation keyboards to create the album. "Look!" the inside front cover demands, "All These Digital Keyboards Come With Lao Styles, a Hardrive And Oriental Styles." (Gary want.)

This poses a serious question, though: How many of the CDs that I've plucked from coast to shining coast were not, as outsiders such as ourselves might imagine, produced abroad and shipped in to the United States, but rather, created here and then distributed to the target immigrant population and, perhaps, back to the homeland? 

This is actually the subject of a longish academic article by Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde, "Making Transnational Vietnamese Music," which looks at the production and distribution of Viet Kieu, music performed by the Vietnamese living outside of Vietnam (a lot of which I also picked up while in Portland). It's an article I plan to read the moment I sign off here. 

More, obviously, on this subject soon ...

Two Lao Guys | Pink Album

Listen to a sample track

Get it all here.

Yet another smile-inducing Lao CD found in the Dallas suburbs last weekend.

I heard from about half a dozen readers in response to my question: Should I change the blog format? It was unanimous: Everyone said "No!" 

Thanks so much for chiming in, all who did--it's nice to know you care enough one way or the other. I'll keep the format as is and, should I ever happen upon something that strikes my fancy, of course I'll run it by y'all first!

Unknown Lao Singer | PKCD 035

Another kick-ass Lao album found in suburban Dallas last weekend.

 
Listen to a sample track 

Get it all here.

As I said in yesterday's post, I'm strongly considering changing this blog's layout to something like this.

Yes or no? Your vote will matter! If I receive no votes in the next day or so, I'm moving ahead and redoing the layout. ...

Male Lao Singer | Unknown CD

Another winning Lao album found in Dallas last weekend at a Laotian grocery store.

So, I'm thinking of updating the whole look and feel of this blog, using one of Blogger's newer templates, "magazine"--something like that. (See a sample of that here.) What do you think? Does it matter? I like it because, even though you seem to lose your header image, the overall look is visually stronger, and the user (you) can switch between multiple types of views. Anyway, if you have strong thoughts about this, let me know.

Oh. This evening's musical offering? I think you're going to like it ...


Listen to the first track


Listen to the 11th track

Get the whole dozen here.

Unknown Lao Singer | SLV CD 24

Have your ass kicked by a sample track 

Grab the whole CD here and treat yourself to a TKO. 

This album, found in a Lao grocery store in northwest Dallas this weekend, has so many "OMG It's So Effing Awesome I Almost Can't Stand It" moments I don't even know how to talk about it. First, whoever this woman is, she has the single most soulful voice I've ever heard. Second, have you listened to this woman's voice? 

There's a very famous line of poetry by James Wright--the last line of his poem, "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota"--which reads, simply: "I have wasted my life." Now, I've always scoffed at that line, at that poem, at James Wright, and in turn at practically the whole state of Minnesota (where I spent six years of my adult life, and thus have, I believe, earned the right to scoff at it). To me, that sentiment runs exactly counter to the one line of poetry I can honestly say I've always lived by: Frank O'Hara's "I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life" from "Meditations in an Emergency," which I'm thinking might actually be the greatest poem ever written by an American. 

 That said ... when I first listened to this album? It was, alas, James Wright's line that I thought of.

Unknown Lao Singer | SVL - CD16

Listen to a sample track

Get it all here.

Hey, how y'all doin'? It's been a while, and for that I apologize, but there's a good reason I've been seemingly AWOL: I was out of town for several days on a mission to keep you up to your ears in music you've never heard before.

On Friday, I flew out to Dallas, Texas, where--despite the image one might have of this major southern metropolis--there is a rather vibrant, thriving immigrant population, mostly in the suburban areas. While I didn't exactly go crazy there--I brought home a mere dozen or so CDs--I do have a number of things from Thailand, Vietnam, Nigeria and, above all, Laos, that I'll be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks.

First off is this rather sublime recording I found at Ocean Market in a Laotian neighborhood in northwest Dallas. I know nothing about it, other than how hard it rocks, which you, of course, can hear and judge for yourself.

Stay tuned for more ...