Two additional renditions of Pham Duy’s “Ky Niem” from my girls 5 Dong Ke and Duc Tuan. It’s refreshing to hear the tune from the young generation.

Feeling down? The Puppini Sisters will guarantee to swing you up. They sure have shaken the morning blue out of me with their debut Bectha Bottom Dollar. I can’t help but laughed my head off when I heard their novelty rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” They have flipped one of the mega disco hits from the 1970s like a pancake into an a-cappella swing with their light, syrupy, rounded vocals. It’s a sacrilegious what they have done to Louis Armstrong’s “Heebie Jeebies” and “Jeepers Creepers,” but fuck it. These British blondies are having a blast making you “Boogie Woogie” and that all it really matter.

That’s right, 13 renditions of Pham Duy’s “Ky Niem” (including Tuan Ngoc’s) for your entertainment. That’s how much we love this song.

Lady Day was not just about pain and drama. When accompanied by the King of Swing on “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” she could swing too. Again, her timing was just amazing. Benny Goodman’s sweet tone on the clarinet was freaking beautiful.

I find myself reaching back to Quan Van NoVa’s rendition of “Ky Niem” again and again like a glass of water. Despite some flaws in his pronunciation, particularly “cuu vot gai bo vo,” brother Tin handles the low notes with conversational candor and the mandolin adds a dollop of melancholy to his raspy vocals. The complement between the instruments (piano and mandolin in unison) on the break is hypnotizing. Mad kudos friends!

Quang Ly’s Vong Am Song is my latest addiction. I’ve been coming back to the album like I need a fix. Quang Ly is an extraordinary interpreter. Just give him any tune and he’ll find his way into it. The high notes in Pho Duc Phuong’s “Ho Tren Nui” don’t seem to suit a male voice, but Quang Ly proved it could be done. Then his Bac Ninh accent on “Ngau Hung Giao Duyen” is so damn exotic that I almost fall for him like I fell for someone who refered to fireworks as “phao hoa” instead of my typical southern “phao bong.” Too bad, he’s already married. Musically, he’s still my man though. His rendition of Tran Tien’s “Que Nha” is a trip down to memory lane:

A oi… hoa bay len troi, cay chi o lai,
A oi… hoa cai len troi,
Rau ram o lai chiu loi dang cay.

Composer/guitarist/singer from Paris, Mong Trang, caught my ears with her sensuous rendition of Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Noi Dau Muon Mang.” Accompanied by her own simple picking guitar, you could feel the bittersweet pain in her voice as quickly as she starts off the first bar: “Mua roi la nuoc mat tinh da phai roi.” Her own composition, “Canh Hoa Dai,” is no less emotional.

I have no idea what Seattle rain is like, but Ella’s scatting over Joe Pass’s simple picking guitar tells it all. When it rains it brings back “That Old Feeling,” and that old feeling ain’t “Nothing But The Blues.” But don’t be too sentimental, you can still do the “Samba” while it rains. Oh Lord, Ella’s scat singing is killing me with her harmomic and rhythmic sensibilities. You’re the fucking man, TTBlue. Thanks for sharing these four delightful tracks from Again.

Where you could file a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants. Goddamn!

If you like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, you’ll love the Indian version.