Hlwan Moe

How can my experience of Burmese Music Industry be complete without Hlwan Moe? With his kick ass attitude and heart warming voice, he has influenced our love of Burmese music in so many different ways. We were grown up with singing loving Ma Aye which even made me wonder how real Ma Aye would look like.

Do I like Hlwan Moe a lot?? I am not sure --- I do not not listening his songs. There are times that his songs could be annoying to me --- on the other hand, there are times that I couldn't stop listening his songs. My personal response to his songs are on the two ends of the extreme. There is no mediocre Hlwan Moe songs that I can listen to. There is only two types: I love them or I hate them.

Of course, his golden days are the time of "Moe-sat-tin-lay" album release. I bought that album and listen to it a thousand times a day. In that album, the song called "Pency" (Did I spell it right? No idea) --- which is claimed to be "Moh Moh Myint Aung" is the "Pency" in that song. Hlwan Moe and Moh Moh lived together for a long time long before Moh Moh was oh so famous. He made fun of her fame and literally impersonate her into lower than a dog in a very cute way, the way which made me cracked up every time I listen to that song (as you might know, I dislike Moh Moh Myint Aung a lot for all her faking).

"This is how it goes in our neighborhood" is also one of the first songs you can hear on album which can make me feel like Thinn-gyan time (Burmese new year) when we were used to be forgiven to make fun of the affairs of how things are generally going on in our everyday lives. Not any more. Nothing is forgiven anymore these days because we are using our strength of forgiveness on the general morality of everyday life which has become lower than ever. We cannot think for goodness of other people's daughter as if our own daughters because we are even selling off our own daughters for the sake of money, power, or for basic surviving. Why am I becoming too opinionated? Aww shuck! I do not want to leave this world like Hlwan Moe --- too sudden, too tragic, too reckless, too dramatic, too unfairly sad that no one want to talk about how he left this world in a road rage traffic accident. Why would I want to talk about it since it is just too helplessly sad? In some ways, it made me feel that he left us in a Hlwan Moe style.

Listen here:
"Moe Set Tin Lay" www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YB0o5HkPY&feature=related
"Ma Aye Ko Chit Lo Par"www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VT1H4_KzA&feature=related

J Nyi Nyi

It was hard to decide to pick between J Mg Mg and J Nyi Nyi --- chronological order or preference. It was just a lottery and J Nyi Nyi won. Who do I like better? I just cannot decide that one either.

What do I like about J Nyi Nyi? It is his passionate singing although Khine Htoo is the one who can express passion the most ( my opinion). He has some of his own style and originality in terms of singing and style. The day when we met on the lower Bar St, he was wearing weathered light blue jeans and a light white cotton down shirt with about 4 button down. I saw a little dragon wooden sculpture tied with a worn out string around his neck. It was a very brief moment but why do I have such a vivid memory like I remember the fragrance of a rose petal? I thought the pendent was charming and even thinking to get one for myself and actually bought one --- just that, never happened to wear it until now.

J Nyi Nyi is the memories of Mandalay summer nights. In a light heat of the night, groups of Mandalar guitar groups love to cover J Nyi Nyi's song all night long until I would getting tired of it. But, that is how I started playing J Nyi Nyi's songs on my hollow guitar without actually listening to his records. His songs are mostly country style with the catchy phrases. Somehow, I thought he has either good luck with "Rain" songs ( songs related to the rain) or he just have a really good deep connected feeling with the rain.

The first song that captured my attention was not one of his well known songs like "A Chit Moe" or "De Moe", it was "Let it be my luck"--- for some reason, I loved that song. The second song that came to me was "I'll just be single" (Lupyogyi-pe-lout-taw-me). I love his playful singing and it's teasing lyrics. It could always make one smile.

He is a nice person who loves music a lot --- is my impression. He loves to sing more than being famous but at a point he seems really wanted to be famous. I saw it in his eyes when his new poster for "Swere" record came out. I still love to listen his songs time to time but still wondering why he is too thin forever. Do I know why or I really do not know why? I love the fact that he plays guitar when he sing most of the time.

Listen J Nyi Nyi here:
"Let it be my luck" www.youtube.com/watch?v=70PUCujxFOY
"I'll just be Single" www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_uu5K70pZI