charin nanthanakhon: aphimaha amata nirankan 2

artist: ชรินทร์ นันทนาคร (charin nanthanakhon) 
album: อภิมหาอมตะนิรันดร์กาล ๒ (aphimaha amata nirankan 2) 
tracklist: 
01. เนื้อทองของพี่ (nuea thong khong phi) 
02. หยาดเพชร (yat phet) 
03. ลมสวาท (lom sawat) 
04. ทาษทรมาน (that thoraman) 
05. กุหลาบในมือเธอ (kulap nai mue thoe) 
06. ในอ้อมกอด (nai om kot) 
07. เพราะขอบฟ้ากว้าง (phro khop fa kwang) 
08. เพื่อน้อง (phuea nong) 
09. น้ำตาแสงใต้ (nam ta saeng tai) 
10. สไบแพร (sabai phrae) 
11. สาวนครชัยศรี (sao nakhon chai si) 
12. รักซ้อน ซ่อนรัก (rak son, son rak) 

this week, a late-'80s retro revival for charin nanthanakhon! a luminary of the luk krung scene throughout the '50s and '60s, charin was invited by the folks at nithithat promotion to join with a number of his golden-age peers (suthep wongkamhaeng, sawali phakaphan, etc.) in a series revisiting some of their signature hits in an updated production style. the aphimaha amata nirankan project was helmed by a variety of leading names from the n.t. label roster; this tape finds the duties handed to thanongsak aponsiri of grand 'ex and phuean fame. charin's still got it here, and of course fans of the n.t. sound will find new things to love about these classic tunes.. enjoy! 

sai sai mao: ka-kha-nga pin phon

artist: ၸၢႆးသၢႆမၢဝ်း (sai sai mao)
album: ၵ-ၶ-င ပိၼ်ႈၽူၼ် (ka-kha-nga pin phon)
tracklist: 
01. ၵ-ၶ-င ပိၼ်ႈၽူၼ် (ka-kha-nga pin phon)
02. ၶမ်ႈဢွမ်ႇၾႆး (kham om phai)
03. ပေႃးႁၵ်ႉမႃးလေႈ (po hak ma le)
04.  ၵေႃးၸၢၺ်းတေဢဝ်ပုၼ်ႈၽွၼ်း (ko sai te ao phun phon)
05. ၶၢဝ်းမၵ်း (kho mak)
06. ထိုင်မိူဝ်ႈပီႈတင်းၼွင်ႉၶွႆၵၼ် (thueng moe pi tang nong khoi kan)
07. လုၵ်ႈယိင်းဢွၼ်ႇလွႆသၢမ်သိပ်း (luk ying on loi sam sip)
08. ၽၵ်းတူ (phak tu)
09. ဢမ်ႇသင်ၵေႃးပွၵ်ႈၼိုင်ႈတေတွၼ်ႈလႆႈႁၵ်ႉ (am sang ko pok nueng te ton lai hak)
10. ဢမ်ႇလူဝ်ႇလၢတ်ႈၵႂၢမ်းသင်ထႅင်ႈ (am lo lat om kwam sang taeng)
11. ဢမ်ႇပဵၼ်ပၢင်ယဝ်ႉယူဝ်း (am pen pang yao yo)
12. မွၵ်ႇပၼ်လၢႆ (mok pan lai)
13. ၶမ်ၸႂ်ၼႃႇတေႉ (kham tsaue na te)
14. ပီႈၸၢၺ်းဢူၺ်းပိူၼ်းပိတ်းၵွႃႇယဝ်ႉ (pi sai oi poen pit kwa yao)
15. ၼူၵ်ႉႁၢင်ႈလီ (nok hang li)

1, 5, 10, 14 featuring မူၺ်ၼုမ်ႇၽွင် (moi num phong)

this week, early recordings from the late, great sai sai mao! on today's cassette he was backed by the aces at ywet wa studio in lashio circa 1978. this would have followed his return from thailand, where he had cut his first few albums with new brother records in chiang mai while serving in the rebel shan state army. it was around the time of these lashio sessions that he met his second wife, moi num phong, who joins him on a few numbers here and carries a couple solo pieces on her own. the lyrics are penned by songwriter sai kham leik (who had given sai mao his revolutionary hit "lik hom mai panglong") and are still in the tai/shan language, from before he won more widespread fame singing in burmese. enjoy!

many thanks to my dear friend samara and her father for help untangling the mix of shan (handwritten and including some older spellings!), burmese, chinese, thai and english writing systems employed on the packaging (though any errors in transcription are mine alone).

mani maniwan: chot mai rak chak mia chao

artist: มานี มณีวรรณ (mani maniwan)
album: จดหมายรักจากเมียเช่า (chot mai rak chak mia chao)
tracklist: 
01. จดหมายรักจากเมียเช่า (chot mai rak chak mia chao)
02. เพื่อนตาย (phuean tai)
sung by วรินทร์ วีระเทพ (warin wirathep)

this week, a real treasure: one of the most fascinating and enduring examples of language-mixing in thai music! originally broadcast on television via suthep wongkamhaeng's suthep show, "love-letter from a rented wife" dramatized the relationship between thai women in the northeast and their american g.i. partners following the u.s. war in vietnam and the withdrawal of military presence there. written by achan achin panchaphan and backed by the apollo band, the song is sung in a singular blend of thai and english, and is still covered often today.

a must-read for further context is my friend ben tausig's amazing new book, bangkok after dark: maurice rocco, transnational nightlife, and the making of cold war intimacies, which features extensive discussion of both this song and the real people who inspired it.

i'm also embedding below a short documentary that my friend pix co-directed for khang lang phleng on thai pbs, all about this song and the legacy of thai kham angkrit kham.