Nghe An "Goat Herder" and his amazing covers

(Baonghean.vn) -Nguyen Thanh Vien, a young man from Nghe An, has become a "music phenomenon" in the entertainment industry with the nickname "goat herder".

That is the image that people are talking about when Thanh Vien first “appeared” in public in the clip covering the song “Knock on the heart” that Vien posted online to share with friends. In that clip, the two sisters, after releasing goats in the forest, took the opportunity to sit down at the family’s cassava field in Nghia Loi (Nghia Dan, Nghe An), and recorded the song themselves using an old computer. And immediately, the song was shared by many people with a lot of interest and love. The name “goat herder” has followed Vien since then…

And I imagined, every night on the streets of Saigon, Thanh Vien returned home on his old motorbike. The smell of powder and wax flew away with the wind. The sparkles were left behind the stage wings. When facing the shadow on the wall of the house, the goat herder was sobbed with memories, love and even his dreams.

I also happened to hear that song by Vien online, loved it, and then connected with this gentle, lovable guy. It felt like the depth, smoothness, and simplicity in that voice were also Vien himself. Vien said: “I am a child of a poor countryside, my parents grew cassava and sugarcane. My older sister married a country man and raised chickens and goats. I am better at farming and raising livestock than I am at singing, but singing is my passion, my dream, and that has never changed.”

Member once returned to his hometown to help his family with farming

Born in 1991, Thanh Vien is the youngest in a family of 4 children. From a young age, Vien loved singing. It was not just an “instinctive” passion, but when he sang, he felt like he could express himself, share, remember and forget. Vien said that he was the healthiest in the family, so he tried to help his parents with many hard jobs: planting cassava, loading sugarcane for hire, plowing with his father...

Clip of two goat-herding sisters singing Knock on the Heart:

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Even when he was most tired, Vien's heart still resonated with melodies. It helped Vien forget his fatigue, helped him understand the hardships of his mother, father, and the villagers... When he was young, every time he got to "perform" in front of a crowd, Vien often chose songs about motherly love, fatherly love, and every time he sang, it made others cry. Vien's parents, therefore, respected their son's interest and passion for music. However, relatives always advised Vien to consider it a "passion" to make his life more enjoyable, and not to consider it a way of life because "singing is a very ungrateful profession".

Therefore, Vien applied to Thai Nguyen University, Human Resource Management Department after graduating from high school, not any art major as she had hoped. Moreover, at that time, Vien had no knowledge of vocal music other than what was taught in high school.

Members help mothers improve hilly land and develop the economy

After graduating from school, unable to find a job, Vien decided to go to the South to start a career. Vien went to the South, with a dream that never faded in his heart, who knows if he would have the opportunity to… sing. In the early days, the country boy was bewildered in the middle of the city, going back to the rented room with his sister’s family with so much sadness and longing. The songs had to be kept tightly in his heart.

Clip of the goat herder singing as well as Quang Le:

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There are times when Vien feels so small and lost that she “makes friends” with her old computer. Vien misses her hometown. She misses her cassava fields, her goats, the freedom of her hometown’s mountains, rivers and lakes, and especially her mother. In the past, at home, after simple but warm meals, Vien often sang to her mother. To Vien, up to now, her mother has been a loyal, devoted audience who loves Vien unconditionally.

Those songs were sung by Vien himself, recorded on the computer, in a small, cramped room with a burning longing to send to his mother. Surely, on the cassava field, on the sugarcane field in his hometown, his mother was working tirelessly and also thinking about her youngest son. Was she crying secretly, because she missed him? Did she remember the old songs when they were all together warmly, and he was still in her arms?

Vien sent his sobs in “Mung tuoi me”, “Xuan nay con khong ve”, “Nho ve mot mua xuan”, “Cay ban mo”… The songs were posted online, then Vien asked the villagers to play them for his mother to listen to. The “heartfelt voice” of that filial son not only reached his mother in his hometown but was also shared and sympathized by many listeners.

With his passion for singing, "goat boy" Thanh Vien has created a musical phenomenon in the entertainment industry recently.

There was a time when Vien got a job as a waiter at a karaoke bar near his room. Vien said that one time, when the last customers left the bar, Vien went to clean the singing room. The songs on the screen were still unfinished, Vien picked up the microphone, and sang passionately. A customer who had forgotten something came back, saw the waiter singing so passionately, and stood still and listened for a while. When he finished singing, Vien was startled to feel a warm hand on his shoulder with the advice: "Your voice is very good, you should go to extra classes to become a professional singer."

“It was just a word of encouragement, but it warmed my heart, and I was even more determined to pursue my dream,” Vien recounted, full of emotion. After that, Vien received a lot of help from friends and professional singers to get “shows” at weddings, birthdays, events, and nightly tea rooms. On billboards advertising music shows at tea rooms and small stages, there was the image of “goat herder Nguyen Thanh Vien” as a way to “attract customers”.

Vien said, for her, that was happiness. Being known and listened to by everyone. Singing as a way to express herself. Moreover, singing has given Vien a source of income, in addition to the show fee, Vien also receives encouragement from the audience... Isn't that what she always wished for?

But more than anyone else, Thanh Vien understands the price behind the stage glory. It is the fatigue, the constant effort to innovate, the gossip, the lurking failures...

Every night after singing, there are times when I feel overwhelmed by anxiety, but whenever I think of the applause, the bouquets of flowers from the audience, the pats on the shoulder, the smiles and tears of those who listen to Vien sing, Vien “feels more steadfast”. There is a saying from a sister, who has always been with Vien whenever she feels unsteady and fails, that: “Forget it, take a deep breath, exhale, stand up and say: Let’s do it again!”

Currently, the musical products of “goat herder” Nguyen Thanh Vien partly receive help from those who care and love him, and are mainly made by Vien himself, and the MV is edited by Vien himself. Vien’s strength is lyrical music. Vien also started to study music intensively for a few sessions. The first recorded songs were “Khong phai tai chung minh” (Ngoc Van) and “Tinh em bien rong song dai” (Thong Dat), in which “Tinh em bien rong song dai” is especially loved by the audience. Vien’s first MV was released and warmly received by netizens right at the beginning of the new year 2016, “Chuoc chuyen dau nam” as a gift and hope, aspiration of Vien for the audience: “Hopefully the beginning and end of the year will be lucky. The family will always be happy and reunited”.

Thanh Vien said that in every lyric of his song there is the image of his homeland.

To say something to the audience who have loved me? It is a word of thanks. Without the love, without the expectations, even… demands from the audience, how could Vien dare to follow the singing path, even though it was Vien’s dream. “The Goat Herder” said it with all sincerity. Vien also felt lucky to have met her idol singer and received encouragement from singer Quang Le.

I asked Vien about her homesickness, and Vien said, surely you can see it, in every word she sings, there is a deep longing for her hometown. There, there is her roof, her parents, her sister, there are things that make up her flesh and blood today. She still wishes to return, to sing in her homeland for the people who work hard in the cassava and sugarcane fields of her hometown. She always sees the sparkling smiles of her parents' sweat there.

And I imagined, every night on the streets of Saigon, Thanh Vien returned home on his old motorbike. The smell of powder and wax flew away with the wind. The sparkles were left behind the stage wings. When facing the shadow on the wall of the house, the goat herder was filled with nostalgia, love and even his dreams. Hopefully, Thanh Vien, the boy from the mountainous region of Nghia Dan, will reach his dream of professional singing, and will always be remembered for his sweetness, depth and simplicity by the music-loving public.

Thuy Vinh