Little jazz bird sings a new song

By Vi Tran   Mon, Jun 29, 2009

I drove through a raging thunderstorm, a torrent of hail and the threat of flood to hear Megan Birdsall sing.

But she herself went through much worse just to find her voice again.

As I waded along Shawnee Mission Parkway at fifteen miles an hour, Birdsall was beginning ( Read more... )

Sinners, saints and mix tapes (Part 2)

By Vi Tran   Mon, Jun 22, 2009

You walk into a booze joint in search of certain spirits - but many who showed up for Barclay Martin Ensemble at Firefly Lounge left with their souls afire.

The second stop on my musical doubleheader billed itself as a modern day speakeasy.  It felt the part.  Out front ( Read more... )

“Lacoste”

by Vi Nhan H. Tran

Angie burst into tears when she heard they’d been put on standby.  Her husband pulled her away from the startled airline clerk and sat her down.  He pushed their stroller full of bags but no baby to a stop and kneeled next to her, whispering, concerned.

She didn’t hear what he said, barely felt the baby who hung ( Read more... )

Sinners, saints and mix tapes (Part 1 of 2)

By Vi Tran   Tue, Jun 16, 2009

Several years ago, a couple months into a budding romance, I decided to assemble some mix CDs to impress my new sweetheart.  Armed with pretty good instincts and sage advice from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, I confidently set about cataloguing the contenders, ( Read more... )

My new music and culture column for KC Metropolis debuted this morning.  Take a look:
"The Steady" chronicles the lives of working performers

By Vi Tran   Tue, Jun 2, 2009
Imagine for a moment that you are a professional performing artist: an actor, dancer or musician.
Not a superstar, mind you, just a working-class artist who makes a significant ( Read more... )

about a year ago, i returned to vietnam for the first time.
this is the first song i wrote about that experience.

Girl At The Bakery

Music & Lyrics by Vi Nhan H. TranLast month, my parents told me ( Read more... )

it comes once a year, unannounced, but always in autumn. after the leaves begin to turn but while there is still plenty of green among the speckling of oranges and browns and reds. after the air begins to cool and halter tops are replaced by light sweaters, there is one specific day that dips to an unnaturally low temperature ( Read more... )

inspired by the work of shel silverstein. for jules.

"sea salt sonnet"jules and i want sailors' lives ( Read more... )

i was shuffling through some new lyrics to see if a song would rear its head when i began playing "tiara," an old shelved song instead. i didn't intend to revise it, but the phrasing of the new lyrics fit it so well that i decided to give the old tune a facelift. the original version of "tiara" is over four years old, written as one part love ( Read more... )

thanks, sweetheart...


( Read more... )