Yesterday was the King of Thailand’s birthday, King Bhumibol Adulyadej turned 83 and celebrations were held across the country in his honor. As the King is seen as the father of Thailand it’s fitting that on the the Kings birthday fathers day is also observed. Many businesses are closed for the day and it’s a time to relax and enjoy your family.

In many ways the Kings birthday is much like the fourth of July in America, families and friends gather together and enjoy good food, fun, concerts and fireworks all in the name of the King. The largest celebrations take place in Bangkok where thousands turn out to honor the king and huge crowds gather to see and hear the kings birthday address. It truly is a sight to see even if only from a television screen.

Living in Pattaya there was no shortage of fun to be had on the Kings birthday/Fathers day. I was officially adopted as a surrogate father for the day by several close Thai friends whose fathers were far away in other provinces.

We enjoyed a great Thai BBQ with what seemed like a few thousand other people then spent the night at a special concert for the King on Pattaya 3rd road. The concert grounds were filled to capacity with happy people both young and old to help celebrate the  Kings birthday. The air was filled with traditional Thai music while dancers took the stage in beautiful costume and the crowd danced and cheered.

Around 11pm candles were lit for the king as prayers were said and then the night sky broke open with a beautiful fireworks display and more traditional Thai music.

I had a great day and I can only hope the King himself was as satisfied with his birthday as I was.

The video below is from the Kings birthday concert in Pattaya. More videos can be found in the Thailand Video Gallery…Enjoy.

Related Articles of Interest:

• Long Live the King & Happy Fathers Day
• Thailand Celebrates Kings Birthday
• Thailand in the News Week Ending 12/05/09
• Long Live the King & Happy Fathers Day
• A Birthday Fit for a King

Another aspect of Thailand I thoroughly enjoy, aside from the street vendors selling food, is the varied street musicians found all around the country. Even in non tourist areas you can find someone plucking or playing an instrument if not a full on chorus singing for your pleasure, and spare pocket change. It might be a few guys with acoustic guitars playing current pop hits or a a single old man playing traditional Thai folk instruments, you never know what you will run into or how you will be serenaded.

No matter what they are playing or how many there are it’s rare to run into a street musician that isn’t accomplished at his or her craft and thoroughly enjoying playing for swelling crowds or just a handful of onlookers.

I’ve been working on a more scenic post about this subject but really wanted to share the below video that I took  Halloween night on Walking Street in Pattaya. These guys were very talented playing their zither like traditional Thai instruments and drew quite a crowd. Enjoy!

Related Articles of Interest:

• Walking Street Pattaya, Thailand
• MapJack Taking on Google’s Street View
• The New Walking Street Sign
• Reggae on the Rocks 2
• Miss Walking Street 2010

The Pattaya Blues

While I am missing Thailand and have the blues in general those aren’t the blues I am talking about at the moment. No, I’m talking about music and Thailand has some of the best live entertainment you could ever hope to see while on holiday.

My first trip to Thailand I was amazed at the quality and quantity of live music from Bangkok to Pattaya. From pop and dance music to hard rock and blues you can find great music any night in any number of bars and clubs. Even bars that are no bigger than a storage shed have live bands that will keep you rockin throughout the night and coming back for more.

One night I was sitting in a bar on walking street talking to a friend about all the great live music and he asked me if I had been to the Blues Factory which was just up the street on Soi Lucky Star just opposite Marine Disco. When I said I had never been there he motioned for our bartender to checkbin us and we were off to the Blues Factory.

The Blues Factory is a great venue to listen to live music and have a great night but what I was unprepared for was seeing one of the best guitarists I had ever seen, his name was Lam Morrison. I was blown away by his guitar work and his band and I have seen him play quite a few times since.

Lam Morrison The King of Thailand Blues

Known as Thailand’s guitar King  Lam has been around the music scene for a while. Picking up the guitar by 13 it wasn’t  long before Lam started his first band called VIP and started touring around the American bases during the Vietnam war playing the rock music the soldiers loved to hear.

Due to the fact that rock music wasn’t a very big scene in Thailand the VIP found it hard to get gigs after the war ended and the G.I.’s returned home. Although gigs were few and far between at one gig in Bangkok a German tourist saw the band and told Lam he should go to Germany and play. While touring through Germany Lam won a guitar dueling contest and earned his guitar King title. After Germany he continued to tour through Europe and North America.

When Lam returned home to Thailand he was signed by EMI Music and released his first album entitled Night in Bangkok. The album took off and sold over a million copies which was a first for a rock artist in Thailand. After the release of the album he went back out on the road touring through Europe with such bands as UFO and Deep Purple.

Lam plays quite a few instruments including the piano, bass and harmonica as well as singing, but it’s his guitar work that brings them in and keeps them there. While there are many bands playing the night clubs and bars of Pattaya there is definitely no one of the same caliber as Lam Morrison.

Lam has been playing as the house band at the Blues Factory since 2002 with a years break or so in 2007 when he opened his own club. He is back as the house act at The Blues Factory and should definitely not be missed if you are going to be in town during the holidays or after.

Lam is truly a national treasure and one of Thailand’s best kept secrets. You can check out a few of his videos below and check out his show times at The Blues Factory. If you are heading to Pattaya set aside a night for some excellent music from a guitar virtuoso playing both rock and the blues, I’ll guarantee you’ll thank me for it.

Pattaya Blues

Related Articles of Interest:

• Phuket International Blues Festival 2009
• Phuket International Blues Rock Festival 2011
• A Night Out on the Town
• Countdown to Songkran: Thai New Year 2011
• Phuket International Blues Rock Festival 2010

The great thing about Thai music is the fact that it all gets the Karaoke treatment which means lots and lots of videos to be had. Which also means that you can find tons of Thai music on YouTube. While some Thai performers such as Tata Young prefer to record their material in English most bands record strictly in Thai.

The Thai language being tonal is much like a musical language as it is but when you hear the language in song it really becomes much more. I’m sure there would be quite a few that might argue that point with me but I find Thai music to be absolutely amazing and every bit as good as any other music being made in the world.

Since I’ve been listening to a lot of Thai music today while tightening up the back end of the blog I thought I would share some of my favorite Thai bands with you.

The first band up is called Me and the singer has a beautiful voice, she’s quite easy on the eyes too.  The next band up is called Big Ass, how can you go wrong with a band named Big Ass…They rock. After them we have a band named Peacemaker who are very chameleon like as they can go from very soft pop to very hard rock easily and they do both well. Last but not least is Kratae, she is a very cute pop singer that I enjoy a lot. I’d be very polite around her though because before she was a pop singer she was a professional Muay Thai boxer!

Enjoy.

Related Articles of Interest:

• Pattaya Music Festival 2011 in Photos & Video
• Hotel California
• Phuket Electronic Music and Dance Festival 2011
• Big Mountain Music Festival 2010
• Pattaya International Music Festival 2011