Darryl “Packo” Paxton (Ponytails Express)

It was good to see live music back after the long lockdown. The Cambodia Country Band & The Extraordinary Chambers up at Oscar’s on the Corner are always great live shows.  A tribute gig recently for the late Peter Doyle at the Villa Grange was greatly supported by many of Phnom Penh’s finest musicians.  Big thanks to Scotty & Leng Pleng for keeping the dream alive.
 

David Zdriluk (Cambodia Country Band, The Extraordinary Chambers)

Truly my only real highlights are that my 11 year old son took up the baritone ukelele during lockdown and that we all got back to gigging after an 8 month hiatus.

 

Clara Shandler (The Sidewalk Cellist)

  • Original Sessions with Pisey at Java Black Box Theatre in February
  • Jamming and performing with Joe Wrigley & Marianna Hensley as part of Grass Snake Trio (throughout spring, summer, and basically right up until my departure)
  • making two music videos with my partner, Tsale, of his songs written in response to the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar
  • jamming with the faculty at Music Arts School and playing a number of songs by King Norodom Sihanouk
  • Reading and performing music with Jen Bird (flute) and Metta Legita (piano) for some heart-warming and intimate musical moments
  • teaching in-person and online some wonderful students in Cambodia, Australia, and Canada
  • performing with Rebecca Wenham for an online concert of Canadian cello music

 Grass Snake Trio, Music Arts School (livestream), 15 August 2021

  

Greg Beshers (Cambodia Country Band, The Extraordinary Chambers, Joe & the Jumping Jacks, Mimi & the Merrymakers)

Our first gigs back at Oscar’s on the Corner and starting to play regularly.  Particularly Joe & the Jumping Jacks at Monkey Republic in Kampot, Mimi and the Merrymakers at the French International School on Koh Pich. Seeing Geography of the Moon at The Vine & Oscar’s on the Corner.  The Peter Doyle memorial at Villa Grange.  Starting up the Odom music series on Friday nights.  Watching the Get Back documentary.  Haven’t been to see many other gigs because I’ve been gigging/working myself.  Looking forward to NYE at Oscar’s, always a good time.

Ozymandias & the Phnom Penh Pythons, Peter Doyle memorial at Villa Grange, 5 December, 2021

 

Troy Campbell: a tale of 3 cities

Battambang is written off as pretty but sleepy, but there is more to BTB to meet the ear than one might think. I was lucky to befriend two bass players there from Italy, running the aptly-named Ristorante Italiano on Street 2.5. One of the two bass players mixed guitar strings with his bass strings and played with a wah-wah pedal, the other just laid it down.  Practicing and gigging a few times with these guys was wonderful.  I miss them.  Wonderful food in their restaurant as well there.  Battambang is actually very cool.

Siem Reap has the best open mic in the world.  Seriously.  Check out The Harbour on any given Wednesday and you will experience an eclectic and friendly community of just flat-out great musicians, coordinating to make everyone feel included, everyone able to showcase their likes and strengths.  Really, it’s magic.  What an open mic should be.  And if Sage Greco is playing bass with you, boy oh boy.  You are lucky.  Sage is the man.

Here in Capital City, prodigal son me has been lucky to have been welcomed back.  I have been blessed to be a part of the genius of so many performers here, from Intan to Scoddy.  I love the diversity in this really rich musical community. So, if I’m hard-pressed to pick a Phnom Penh highlight, it’s a toss-up between witnessing Arone, Ricky and Stan (Spiked Gravy) igniting a musical fire at Oscar’s on the Corner during the December punk and metal night (Arone in a green mask, at that), and the gift of being able to finally be on stage with Geography of the Moon a few days later.  Magical nights, both.  Geography…good grief.  The “Best Damn Bar” is also the best damn rock club with the best damn curation.  Each and every show there sounds awesome.

I look forward to hearing, experiencing and playing more next year around the traps!

 

Sharon Lui (Swing Time)

Thank you Leng Pleng for covering all the musicians playing in Phnom Penh, they’re heard, the soul of their music is conveyed.   Since I was in Phnom Penh for a trip, before I moved in early 2021, I’ve been feeling a warm welcome, and being seen as a musician and music maker.

Swing Time, Mealea Restaurant, Palace Gate Hotel, 24 September, 2021

 

Steve Porte

  1. Sunday Sundowner Sessions on the boat instead of at Tacos Kokopelli. Even though we were away for many of these, it was nice to see some sort of musical gathering continuing in the face of lockdowns
  2. The Extraordinary Chambers at Oscar’s on the Corner, 21 and 22 October. For me, this signalled the legitimate return of live music to Phnom Penh
  3. The return this month to Cambodia of Geography of the Moon. A favorite band (and favorite people) returns from corona exile

Jonathan Dunn, Hugo St Leger, Nathan Fanoni and Scoddy, Sunday Sundowner Boat Sessions hosted by Tacos Kokopelli, 13 June 2021.  Photo credit: David Flack

 

Will Canuck (First World Problems)

It was a challenging year for musical highlights but a few do stand out. The most startling one was the rebirth of my status as a full-blown Beatles freak courtesy of the release of director Peter Jackson’s eloquently edited documentary Get Back. Hewn from some 60 hours of footage shot for the Let it Be project, Jackson managed to deliver a virtual treasure trove of moments across three episodes that rewrote the idea that by the time of the Let it Be sessions the fab four were in tatters, no longer functioning as a unit and essentially already broken up for all intents and purposes. Nothing it appears to have been less true. There are scenes of underlying tension and plenty of sad and challenging moments but mostly we see a band unlike any other before or since in its ability to create, collaborate and deliver. And they do mostly with obvious love among them, communicated in the private “Beatle-speak” previously seen via now ancient footage, but never in this amount and done so “fly on the wall”.  Watching the literal “genesis” moments of songs, now universally known and loved, being crafted was a revelation. For someone who thought they had seen and read every piece of important and not so important Beatle media out there, Get Back is the cinematic equivalent of finding a winning lottery ticket in a long-unchecked pants pocket.

On a more directly personal front, my band of brothers, the First World Problems, had something of a banner year despite the long Covid induced break in live gigging. We managed to persevere with rehearsals through the break, adding to our repertoire of original tunes, even crafting some new ones as the writing bug finally hit me again after a long period of dormancy through my years in China and Vietnam. More importantly, we secured our Wednesday night residency at Oscar’s on the Corner, where courtesy of having two full sets expanded with the judicious addition of some carefully curated covers, we crank out full nights for steadily increasing crowds of patrons we never cease to be amazed by and thankful for.

Have to mention the continuing delight of watching my chums in the Extraordinary Chambers, the Jumping Jacks and the Cambodia Country Band week in and week out. And I would be remiss in not mentioning equally fine evenings spent listening to fellow musos including The Sock Essentials, Little Thieves, songwriter Gareth Bawden and his Brexiteers and the jaw dropping voice of singer Marianna Hensley during a short set with Joe Wrigley and Friends at The Cove I happened upon. So…2021 being almost done? Bring on 2022.

 

Esther Mao (November Band)

Music plays an important part in human’s lives in every nation as they have their own sound and traditions for the sake of better and more colourful lives.  Listening to music keeps us happy during these difficult times and helps to provide relief to our brain.  Playing music is even better as you create your own new voice and taste.  November Band  started in November, we haven’t been playing together much in 2021 but we are individually involved in music industry by studying, performing and creating original songs. All the experiences that we had come across make us falling even more deeply into wanting to make something beautiful – weather the moments, community, new music and so on. By playing gigs, we have learned that there are a huge and warm friendly musician community included the Khmer people and the foreigners all around world have come together to enjoy the same interest which make the music performance even better.  November Band would love to do more of the fun gigs to get to know more interesting people and create more amazing moment in the upcoming year ahead.

November Band at Odom Gardens, 19 November, 2021


Nathan Fanoni (The Brexiteers)

  1. Recording an EP with Scott Bywater and Professor Kinski
  2. Actually being allowed to gig again
  3. Playing again with The Brexiteers, one of the bands I am in


Jyoti Felix (Phnom Penh Ukulele Circle)

Medha – women’s drumming group street procession at the Angkor Arts Festival in Siem Reap.  Absolutely amazing!

 

Colin Grafton (Blues Routes, Blue Wave)

Well, I’m glad it’s over, and I never want to see it again, and I’m full of vaccine and optimism for 2022, because I’m a hopeless romantic and have convinced myself it’s got to be better.

Highlights of 2021? We kicked off the year with the intranational tour of the Blue Wave bossa nova/jazz quartet: Takeshi and Machiko Yamauchi, Keiko Kitamura and me. We swept the Battambang/Siem Reap circuit with 2-3 gigs in each place, and returned to Phnom Penh just in time for the lockdown.

Among music we went to listen to, standouts were the San Sabor Latin Trio and Maki Orkestr, Intan Andriana and Mirasol Aguila (especially together), Marianna Hensley and Clara Shandler.

Tacos Kokopelli’s sunset Mekong trips were delightful, and I found myself craving for the next one. Totally acoustic was great, even though nobody could hear us. I hope they continue at least once a month.

Then there was the Rolling Stones surprise world detour to play the Chaktomuk Hall, albeit without Charlie… oh sorry, that was just a dream.

Perhaps the only personal highlight for me was the Chapei Diaries project set up by Keat Sokim with a grant from Cambodian Living Arts to produce a couple of concerts at the end of January. Blues Routes got together with Sokim and some fine Cambodian musicians and a singer, and we proceeded to explore all the possibilities of the chapei. The program will be 50% Khmer music with barang trying to fit in, and 50% blues, Latin and African music with Cambodians trying to fit in. We decided to use as little electricity as possible, and everything is focused on the chapei. Exploring has been great fun so far, and Pavel Ramirez has proved to be a most sensitive, patient and imaginative arranger for the group. His rapport with the Cambodians, and his insights into how to integrate the different tonal qualities of the instruments and experiment with rhythms are really paying off.

 

Jack Dodd  (The Goldilocks Zone)

I haven’t seen anywhere near as much live music in 2021 as I would have liked. But due to the ongoing pandemic situation I know I am not the only one. It is wonderful to see that live music is properly up and running again in Phnom Penh.

For me Little Thieves are one of the most exciting and enjoyable live acts around. I have seen them both electric and acoustic this year and their songs work great in both formats. Lovely harmonies, fantastic grooves and interesting songs.

I would also say Soselo Summer will be a band to watch out for next year. I saw them live at Meraki in Kampot for their debut show and enjoyed what I heard.

Roll on 2022!


Arone Silverman (The 99 Boyz, Pocket Change, Mirasol & Arone)

February 19 at Alchemy, the finale of The 99 Boyz.  It will always stand out because the lockdown was the next day. Everyone knew it and the place was electric. It signaled the beginning of an end to that era of the Phnom Penh live music scene. Just now we are starting to see what’s to come next.

The 99 Boyz, Alchemy, February 19, 2021.  Photo credit: Dalen Vong

 

Marianna Hensley  (Scotch’n’Soda, Grass Snake Trio, Marianna & Joe, Mimi & the Merrymakers)

2021 – another year with spurts of musical activity between long periods when live music was limited to online or not at all.  A couple of highlights before the musical lights went out in Phnom Penh in 2021 include a rare, last-minute-as-usual performance with the Inbred Outlaws in mid-February, followed a few days later by an intimate evening of Americana with Joe Wrigley and a small-yet-attentive audience at The Box Office on February 20th itself.

My favorite livestream of the year was the one-off Come on in my Kitchen in May that (for me) finally made the technology leap of bringing together musicians in different locations for a single livestream.  This livestream was magical in terms of the connections it made between fellow musicians and audience in Cambodia and beyond during the long weeks of curfew.

Then there was the brief but delightful sojourn of Clara Shandler with Grass Snake Trio, including one beautiful livestream from Music Arts School plus a wonderful afternoon of live-and-in-person music at Botanico Wine and Beer Garden in late August.  Live music on a Sunday afternoon—what a revelation!

As the year drew to a close, there were a couple of longed-for return performances as musicians including Ernie Buck and Geography of the Moon found their way back to Cambodia after covid-enforced separations.  The final cherries on top of my music year were opportunities for school-based performances of Mimi and the Merrymakers plus leading Carols by Candlelight with Metta Legita, both reminding me of the joy and privilege of sharing music within a community.

 

Gary Custance (Little Thieves)

From our perspective 2021 has been a positive year musically. Lockdowns and the like gave us more time to sit and compose the final tracks for the forthcoming album. A lack of shows meant more time in rehearsal. The few shows we managed to play later in the year gave us the chance to showcase some stuff we created during the lockdowns which we’re really proud of. There has been a nice evolution from the way we approached creating music when we first formed – one of us bringing a ‘song’ to the group and then trying to somewhat rework it as a band, to pieces of music which have been created by the 4 of us in equal measures. There’s a running joke about who the ‘front-man’ of the band is now – the obvious assumption being that it’s Lewis McTie, because of his hair – but the truth is we all have complete ownership of what we are creating and performing nowadays, and it makes this project such an exciting and rewarding thing to be a part of.

As for the pop scene here in Cambodia more generally there really are some really interesting things going on. Japan Guitar Shop keep evolving all the time. Cove has always been a creamy poet with a death-nail vocal but we are now seeing the guys around him really step up. The whole low-fi hip-hop Colin brings to the table, with Cove’s blues vocal interludes, is really intriguing. I have a feeling those boys will continue to develop their sound in 2022.

The opening of Sunset Boulevard is another massive plus for us. We managed to squeeze one show in there before the year was out and everything about the place is good. Arone is in the process of creating a place where all that’s good about the Phnom Penh music scene can come together. Each time we have hung out there the place is full of incredibly talented musicians – not least Arone himself. It is definitely going to become a regular haunt for The Thieves next year.

There are so many other things that could be mentioned regarding music in The Kingdom which give a feeling of excitement and intrigue. Meng Jing, AKA ‘Miss Saucy’, is a name everyone should listen out for. She is Kampot based, and accompanies us each time we play down there, but has promised a few live appearances in the capital soon. Unbelievable songwriter with the most beautiful voice. Geography of the Moon are back in these parts – though I know they need no further introduction, as is Robin Narciso – previously of Sangvar Day – who, after a hiatus, is writing and performing again.

So despite all the bullshit going on and around right now, Little Thieves can confidently conclude that things will be just fine. Don’t worry about it. Happy New year.

 Little Thieves, Oscar’s on the Corner, 13 November 2021

 

Scott “Scoddy” Bywater: a tale of three hats

With my Guillermo Wheremount/LengPleng hat on:

  • the opportunity to sit down and have conversations with the always interesting characters that make up the music community in Cambodia, and to be able to turn these into interviews that take their subjects as seriously as they would like to be taken. From the insanity of the Table Six Miniature Harmonica Orchestra to the joyous history of Grass Snake Union and its various combinations; from the long strange journey of Will Canuck to the exile of Ernie Buck; the contrasting stories and approaches of Gareth Bawden, Jeff Baker and Alli G; the excitement of The Balcony Show collaborators; the captivating energies of Son Sabor Trio and Cecile Hinas
  • the tantalising details that come up in Passing Chords, from newcomers like Sharon Lui and Sam Sandak to old timers like Phil Javelle and Packo, from lifetime pros to the enthusiastic open mic-ers who keep the scene bubbling
  • look out for the book Around the Traps 2021/Passing Chords Vol III early in the new year

 

With my Oscar’s on the Corner hat on:

  • the efforts and delights of putting together a seven-nights-a-week line up again after the March – October drought, and seeing the bar full again night after night
  • watching our house band of young Khmer musicians K’n’E continuing to grow, and especially coming back so strong and excited after the break
  • the continued tradition of Cambodia Country Band doing Halloween dressed as The Village People
  • the late year double header of Little Thieves and Japan Guitar Shop
  • the wonderful welcome home shows by Ernie Buck with The Uncomfortably White Brothers and Geography of the Moon

 

With my Scoddy performer hat on:

  • The Extraordinary Chambers at Oscar’s throughout, particularly the last New Year’s Eve and the first few shows back in October when people were so excited to see each other again
  • anything to do with Mimi & the Merrymakers, from rehearsals to livestreams to live performances
  • Sunday Sundowner Sessions that couldn’t be at Tacos Kokopelli and were instead on a river boat cruise – the only outlet there was for a while – and the return to Tacos Kokopelli where Table 6 Miniature Harmonica Orchestra gained a new and very young member
  • the Peter Doyle remembrance afternoon at Villa Grange
  • recording the mini-album Greetings from Adventure Bay with Professor Kinski and Nathan Fanoni, Marianna Hensley and Veronika Janouchova
  • the Adrien Gayraud farewell show at Oscar’s on the Corner earlier this month

 

And one last thing in a different shade of music: for most Tuesdays this year the Phnom Penh Ukulele Circle has been able to continue to meet at our new home, Bong Bonlai Restaurant at YK Art House, an ongoing weekly delight where old songs are there to be loved, new songs (some of them very old) enjoyed, and new ukulele players born.

Phnom Penh Ukulele Circle subset: Reni, Sanket and Irina, at PPUC Theme Night, 28 December, 2021

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