Jonny Olsen: Laotian Pop Star

M. Rebekah Otto bio ↓ · February 5th, 2009 · filed under music

When Jonny Olsen, from Southern California, first went to Thailand, he stumbled on a plastic toy khaen, the native instrument that sounds like part harmonica, part reedy accordion. Well, the rest is pop music history… Read about his incredible (ridiculous?) journey, from Valley skateboarder to Laotian pop star. Watch him on the khaen here or see him sing the traditonal morlum Thai and Lao songs.

···
M. Rebekah Otto lives in Berkeley, CA. Her interests include nineteenth century medicine, education policy, and farmstead cheese. She is an Editor of Atlas Obscura, and a regular contributor to the Believer. More from this author →

The Rumpus Blog

newest posts from The Rumpus

Subscribe to The Daily Rumpus

Email:

Donate to the rumpus

This is The Rumpus

The Rumpus.net is an online magazine focused on culture, as opposed to "pop culture." Pop culture can be hard to define and the term means different things to different people. Basically, we're not opposed to things that are popular, but we have no interest in "art" created by marketing executives. And we have no interest in derivative art, like images of famous people made from shoelaces or Star Wars characters in funny wigs. (More on what we're about here, here, and here.)

The Rumpus is not worried about being the first to break the news. We care about good writing, and we'll publish essays just because the writing is good. And we won't run a well crafted meditation alongside an actor's opinion of the war in Iraq. (more)

Feeds & Subscriptions

Built by XOXCO

The Rumpus.net

Jonny Olsen: Laotian Pop Star

Leave a Reply

The Rumpus Blog

Most Popular Posts

Subscribe to The Daily Rumpus

Donate to the rumpus

Navigation

This is The Rumpus

Feeds & Subscriptions