Biography
It's the singer, not the song, according to a familiar adage, yet the distinction blurs with Miss Sai Thong. French international music producers credited the album track "Love Song" to her more than 40 years ago, and the performance continues to surface regularly on discerning public radio and college global music programs. Amid a flood of worldwide releases, these particular renditions have retained their appeal. Any subsequent announcement of the performer's name may carry little weight, however, since the producers evidently supplied imprecise documentation for the project. In this instance the singer's identity might actually coincide with the song title itself, given that both "thong" and "sai" function as common terms in Laotian, Vietnamese, and Thai. The vocalist delivered an unaccompanied response to the preceding track, which bore the same title. Such imprecise labeling reflects the generally careless approach taken toward the UNESCO-sponsored A Musical Anthology of the Orient series, first issued on Baren Reiter Musicaphon albums. When Rounder reissued the collection on compact disc during the '90s, the label's choice to retain the original liner notes without additional investigation drew criticism from certain commentators.
Further clarification may simply have been unattainable. Miss Sai Thong belonged to an ensemble that broadcast the nation's traditional repertoire over Laotian Radio Vientiane. Her own focus lay in unaccompanied ballads, whereas fellow singers often appeared with modest accompaniment such as the khene mouth organ or larger ensembles reaching orchestral scale. As radio transmission expanded across the country, aided substantially by the United Nations' portable "suitcase radio stations," these artists gained wider recognition. The political upheavals that gripped Southeast Asia in the late '60s and '70s proved far less hospitable to such musicians, however. Both the performers and any additional recordings they might have produced vanished along with Radio Vientiane and its supporting institutions. Consequently the UNESCO documents have gained considerable worth, even though their informational shortcomings remain evident.
Further clarification may simply have been unattainable. Miss Sai Thong belonged to an ensemble that broadcast the nation's traditional repertoire over Laotian Radio Vientiane. Her own focus lay in unaccompanied ballads, whereas fellow singers often appeared with modest accompaniment such as the khene mouth organ or larger ensembles reaching orchestral scale. As radio transmission expanded across the country, aided substantially by the United Nations' portable "suitcase radio stations," these artists gained wider recognition. The political upheavals that gripped Southeast Asia in the late '60s and '70s proved far less hospitable to such musicians, however. Both the performers and any additional recordings they might have produced vanished along with Radio Vientiane and its supporting institutions. Consequently the UNESCO documents have gained considerable worth, even though their informational shortcomings remain evident.