Kim Sinh is a Vietnamese musician, adopted an almost mythical status after Ry Cooder quoted he had collaborated with him, but then no record ever appeared. It's easy to hear what appealed to Cooder. Sinh is an extraordinary Vietnamese musician playing a number of string instruments, including the Vietnamese two stringed lute the dan nguyet, a slide guitar, steel guitar and a European acoustic guitar with scalloped fret spacing to increase the note bending. His music evokes the blues at times. But insists he never heard American blues before he began making this unique music. It seems hard to believe as you listen to the pulled blues notes and twisting, entwining vocals. He is also a Cai Luong performer, a kind of Vietnamese theatre and a popular type of popular song based on traditional music, but there are plenty of noticeable influences from Western and Chinese popular music as well. Whether he plays a familiar folk song or pushes the edge of improvisational experiment, Kim Sinh exercises amazing control and a certain subtle wit that marks him as an important artist. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.