On Genghis Blues (1999)

Dir. Roko Belic – USA, Russia – Music Documentary

For the uninitiated, Genghis Blues is an epic, unique, and heart-warming tale of belonging and understanding, passion for music and curiosity. The film tells the story of Paul Pena, a blind bluesman who was raised in Massachusetts, and his affinity towards the folk throat singing traditions of Central Asia, in particular that of Tuva. Throat singing in the West has garnered a cult following in the digital age and has gained a reputation as one of the most “out-there” genres music fans can listen to – where “anything except rap and country” holds true for most people, audiophiles might say “anything but throat singing and musique concrète.” It takes an extraordinary amount of training and discipline, as singers have to maintain two notes at the same time by virtue of natural harmonics. Below is a good intro to the genre!

Huun-Huur-Tu, perhaps the most popular Tuvan artist of all time, plays their Chyraa-Khoor at a live session with KEXP, a Seattle-based radio station which showcases a wide variety of music on their YouTube channel as well.

For the film itself now, is tragic and beautiful in equal measures. Paul’s talent frees him when he laments being trapped at home; he can visit one place by himself, a corner shop, and is robbed mere metres from his house, and when he travels thousands of miles away to Tuva, which in the 90s was even more obscure than it is nowadays, he feels more comfortable and welcomed than anywhere he has been before. He first heard throat singing on shortwave radio from Moscow and was captivated with it there and then, and spent years trying to put a name to the style of music before he reached a conclusion.

His speaking voice is smooth and sweet as treacle and he has a stirring deep tone to his traditional delta blues singing. He’s cut from the same cloth as Johnny Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and other titans of pre- to post-war popular talking blues, and he understands music unlike anyone else. The subject content of the film is entirely unique and totally unbelievable until you see it: a series of massive coincidences and dominoes falling in the right way that connected all of these people. The fact that Pena could understand how Tuvans were creating this sound and that it wasn’t synthesised or an instrument shows how in tune with his vocal cords he is, and the fact that he could recreate it in a matter of days after finding the music is even more impressive. As a few who knew him during this week long period said, he truly understood the culture. The efforts he went to to learn Tuvan with two dictionaries and an Optacon shows just how much he appreciated this area of the world he had no connection to.

With some encouragement, Paul reaches out to try and contact some of his idols from a CD he found in a record shop, and after a year is successful in receiving a reply. He is invited to the Republic of Tuva and to meet with Kongar-ol Ondar (who appears on many tracks of the soundtrack album), and tours the villages and countryside, being introduced to cultures and peoples, all the while practising delightfully accented, wonky, and deeply appreciated Tuvan, along with some Russian. This trip centres around a region-wide competition of throat singing, to which Paul is invited and made a guest of honour. The emotional parts come when the audience welcomes him on stage for one song and he only walks off stage 15 minutes later after having improvised several songs just for them, all accompanied by steel string guitar rather than igil.

Paul after performing his first improvised song onstage, shortly before performing once again at the insistence of the audience.

He leaves stage right teary-eyed and with a bunch of flowers,. Then he finally meets Ondar Daruma, the man who replied to his letter all that time ago, they share an embrace and talk excitedly of the performance. Clearly this had a huge effect on all those involved, as they even start to believe some of the shamanism the culture is steeped in when things go pear-shaped at the end, when Mario suffers a heart attack and it looks like they won’t be able to get home after all.

Paul and the gang did get home, of course, and the documentary was completed. It was only 6 years after this that he died. There is no mention anywhere online where I can find info on his life that says whether he ever returned to Tuva or to see Kongar-ol who he spent so much time with, and became like a brother to. I really hope deep down he returned there one more time, if not to stay for the rest of his life then for at least a few more days with his found family. He belongs there.