The first CD in the Musical Heritage of Northeast Thailand series, an anthology of field recordings made by Terry Miller between March, 1973, and February, 1974, in various provinces of Northeast Thailand, a mostly Lao-speaking region commonly known as Isan. Forgotten Lam Genres features singing styles that were once the essence of vocal music in Isan and Laos. Most genres of lam involve a pair of singers, one male, one female, but a few genres were sung by a single singer. Featured here are epic narratives, theater music, and courtship songs. Lam is usually accompanied by the khaen free-reed mouth organ, the instrument that most typifies the Lao/Isan culture.
Because of rapid economic and social development in this formerly backward region, many of these genres and styles no longer exist or have been transformed into modernized forms very different from those heard on these recordings. Dr. Miller, a reknowned scholar of Thai music, was formerly the head of the ethnomusicology department at Kent State University, and made these recordings while completing his doctoral dissertation fieldwork under the supervision of Prof. Jarernchai Chonpairot of Mahasarakham University.