GPD041 นายวิเชียร เพ็ชรนิล

The final recording session during Wichian’s extended stay in Chiang Mai, during which time he stayed at our house. Our hospitality to Wichian offended some of the American missionaries teaching at our school because “you never know what kind of people these itinerant minstrels might be – spies or who knows what. And there has been a lot of thievery about lately.”

At night before sleep Wichian once asked me to read to him from a pamphlet he carried in his pocket. Sadly, it was in Sanskrit, illegible by me. Each night he said his Buddhist mantra taught to him by priests in his home town of Ubon Rachatani.

One of Wichian’s two Kaens. The two strings attached to the back nub of the instrument have little balls of “kisoot” attached. These are used to plug finger holes, creating the done notes for the various modes. Most sighted players do not do this – they pull little bits of kisoot off the instrument itself to form the drone notes. The string trick is more convenient for a blind player.