Music to Heal: Phạm Mộng Hải and "Help Us In This Life (Hát Văn)"

From Vietnam comes our song for today, performed by Phạm Mộng Hải. The song is called Help Us In This Life (Hát Văn). While I can't find information on the artist, the album on which the song appears, Hanoi Masters: War Is a Wound, Peace Is a Scar (2015), is a various Vietnamese artists compilation of master musicians mostly in their later years who perform traditional Vietnamese folk songs or new songs in the traditional mode that all have the Vietnam War and its lingering aftermath as their unifying theme. The Guardian calls it "an extraordinary record" where "the recordings are all shot through with a sense of intense loss – the loss, the listener feels, not only of friends and family, but also of the innocence that a country that has endured a long history of colonial conflict can perhaps never again enjoy."

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.