I was lucky enough to see a group of talented young morlam performers last weekend at Keep on the Grass indie folk festival in Khao Yai. Their cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” had everyone in the audience smiling and cheering.
While we couldn’t find a video of them performing this song last weekend, we did manage to unearth a clip of them playing it three months ago at another event.
The cover, sung by students from Buriram’s Rong Rien Lek Nai Toong Kwang, which translates as “a small school in a big field,” is as enthusiastic as it is cheerful. Thai netizens seem to agree, having viewed the video 18K times and leaving comments that include praise, wonder and lots and lots of variations on “Awesome!”
These 14 kids, dressed in traditional plaid fisherman pants, skirts and sashes, rock out on ukulele, fiddle, guitar, phin, khaen, gourd, djembe, floor drum and one kid is even playing the tambourine with his foot!
According to Buriram World, the music school was founded by farmer Pichai Auingao, 40, who teaches the kids for free in a small hut in Tha Worn Village. Part of the reason he founded the school was so kids would not grow up addicted to modern technology. He hopes to encourage an interest in music and love of rural life.
Follow the music school on Facebook for more baby morlam videos.
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