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One evening in 1986, Paul Pena, a blind blues musician living in San Francisco, tuned in his shortwave to a Radio Moscow broadcast of Tuvan throat-singing and said, whoa, what's that?! He searched out a recording and somehow, from hearing the sounds alone, taught himself to throat-sing. Amazing that anyone could intuit what occurs in the vocal tracts of throat singers of Tuva (a feature article by Ted Levin and Michael Edgerton in the September, 1999 issue of Scientific American made it clear how implausible that is). Turns out the kargyraa style is entirely compatible with a whiskey-soaked, gut-bucket growl.
In 1995, Paul Pena, composer of the Steve Miller hit "Jet Airliner," won Audience Favorite and First Prize in the kargyraa division of the second International Festival of Throat-singing held in Kyzyl, capital of Tuva. The journey from Point A to Point B, and Pena's various adventures in Tuva, make a captivating story told in the movie Genghis Blues. This disc of the same name with Tuvan sygyt master Kongar-ol Ondar also holds wonders.
"What You Talkin' About?" (track 1) appears as "The Ballad of Cher Shimjer" on Disc 1 (track 2) of Planet Soup, a dynamite 3-disc miscellany of world fusion from Ellipsis Arts (1996), where it exemplifies the idea perfectly. In the next several tracks, Ondar reveals his virtuosity and Pena his Cape Verdean and southern blues roots, but the real gems are the ones that intertwine these disparate musical traditions. The moma style of Cape Verdean blues guitar slips seamlessly behind the mournful melody of the Tuvan protest song "Konggurey" (track 8). A shameless blues riff comes and goes throughout "Eki A'ttar" ("Good Horses," track 9), a song about girls, of course, while the doshpulur (Tuvan banjo) maintains a steady trot. But the most audacious experiment by far is "Sunezin Yry" ("Soul's Song, track 10), a contemporary Tuvan song completely recast as a blues song. I get shivers.