Sleepwalking Through the Mekong
Dengue Fever sleepwalking through the Mekong. A Balm-bred drummer turned tourist guide, reporting from the delta in southern Vietnam.
The tenth transmission is a departure, and not only in who's behind the mic. The guide paddles a canal north toward Ho Chi Minh City, reads the city's time signature, eats broken rice at a Viet Cong cafe that still stands, and untangles the five tones of Vietnamese.
He stands before the statue of Thich Quang Duc, the monk whose 1963 self-immolation was, in Thich Nhat Hanh's words to Martin Luther King, an act of construction, not destruction. Then a Ho Chi Minh prison poem: after sorrow comes joy.
23 tracks. The water keeps moving, from the creek to the canal to the river.
Signal web
Artists in this transmission
Music featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Russ Garcia & His Vocal Choir and OrchestraMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Ahmed FakrounMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Roger WebbMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Dorcas Kaja & Les SoeursMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Nu GeneaMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
PortisheadMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Lalo SchifrinMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Glass BeamsMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Asha BhosleMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Sound Track Orchestra & SilvyMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Leila ForouharMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Dorothy AshbyMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
ØroMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Donatella ViggianoMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Donald ByrdJazz legend. Existential political inquiry.
DaltonMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
RobMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
AmanazMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
KhruangbinMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
The Paradise Bangkok Molam International BandMusic featured on Balm Valley Authority.
Signals
Balm Valley
Not just where the show is broadcast, what the show is about. A real place in Appalachia that's also a state of listening.
Crate-Digger Signals
The show's devotion to the obscure, the overlooked, the record that sat in a bin for decades waiting to be found.
The Creek
The first voice on BVA. Water over old stones, and the valley's carrier frequency.
The Operator
The voice of the Balm Valley Authority, host, narrator, creek-side philosopher, and keeper of the woolly worm oracle.
The Spoken Word
Poetry as transmission. Gil Scott-Heron, Yusef Komunyakaa, and the Operator's monologues, words that land with the weight of music.