The Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Weekly Jam
Spreads the Love of Our Music To Southeast Asia
Photos By Sunny Sachdev
Bluegrass music has always existed within this overall modern age of technology. While the roots of bluegrass music go back centuries, the genre solidified when Bill Monroe brought Earl Scruggs into his Blue Grass Boys band in late 1945. At that point, just after the end of World War II, radio had long been the entertainment medium of choice while television was still in its infant stages and 78-RPM vinyl records were in the homes that could afford a turntable.
Unfortunately, when it comes to two of the most influential musicians in Bill Monroe’s life, his fiddle-playing Uncle Pen Vandiver and local guitar ace Arnold Schultz, who both died in the early 1930s, the sounds of the music they made were never recorded.
The evolution of technology and its relationship with the music industry has seen its ups and downs along the way, and that is especially true now when a listener can retrieve seemingly every song released in the history of humans with just a click on an online streaming service.
We also live in the age of AI, where whole songs and albums of deceptively ‘new’ music can be contrived and created by a computer with zero human input. There are also positives to be found within the current technology, including the advent of successful podcasts being created and content providers on YouTube and TikTok having garnered their own audiences who pay to subscribe to their channels.
On the music side of that equation, there are music outlets such as Rick Beato’s YouTube channel that not only teach aspiring musicians how to be better at what they do, they also educate the listener as to what they should look for in music of a high quality.
Personally, I have also found live-streaming video channels that have proven to be fascinating as well and that usually entails broadcasts from other parts of the world. After the recent death of my brother and father, with all of us having a big interest in all things planes (my Dad was a pilot in the U.S. National Guard), I enjoy watching the live streams from the major airports of the world, including the SDTV channel streaming from London, UK, and the Julia Flights team streaming from Brisbane Airport in Australia, both on YouTube. At other times, I might tune into the live streams that come from cameras set up at watering holes in the wild game lands in the countries of Namibia and Kenya in Africa. It all changes from day to day.
I bring all of this up for an important bluegrass-related reason. This wonderful story is based on the short list of Youtubers that I watch who stream their travels live from different parts of the globe for up to eight hours at a time. Depending on the day or month, they could be streaming from Japan, Vietnam, Sweden, Latvia, or Germany. Pick a country. Two of the best at this are @ManukiEmi and @RelicKris, with both of them live streaming on the Twitch channel and on YouTube. It was the latter’s recent stream that enlightened me to a bluegrass scene I had never heard of before in one of the most exotic places in Southeast Asia.
Six months ago in February 2025, Relic Kris was live streaming from Bangkok, Thailand. On a Sunday night, he decided to take a paid scooter ride to a Vintage Night Market located 40 minutes outside of Bangkok. As Kris walks out of a shop, with his live video camera constantly on so viewers can experience the sights and sounds of this tourist-friendly land at street level, all of a sudden there is the sound of live instruments playing the classic fiddle tune “Blackberry Blossom.” Kris seems to be as perplexed as I am as he thankfully stops to listen to the musicians, saying into the camera, ‘Holy (smoke), are we in America? This is so random, I love it.”
I immediately stop the live video and scroll it back to look at the folks in this jam and to try and read a store sign to see where this bluegrass event is happening live 9,000 miles away. It turns out to be the Srinagarindra Night Market, and when I search for more information, up pops the webpages for the Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Jam, and my heart is instantly filled with joy and my curiosity is totally piqued.
To make a wonderful and long story short, I reached out to the folks at Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Jam and I got an answer. One of the regular musicians who attends this unlikely gathering is Sunny Sachdev and this citizen of Bangkok not only speaks and writes in English, but he is also willing to do so for this interview for Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine.
Without further explanation, here is my interview with Sunny Sachdev about the Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Jam. In the primer YouTube video about the Bangkok Bluegrass Jam, which is titled “A Visit to The Only Weekly Bluegrass Jam Spot In Thailand,” which can be found at tinyurl.com/BangkokBlue, the owner of the Chi Chiang Shop Prawit Chamnandechakul talks about noticing the various musical instruments that came through his vintage shop over the years, and the day he decided to try and learn how to play them. That was the beginning of his path to bluegrass music.
“Prawit’s shop has always been full of old-school Americana items, including denim clothing, boots, vintage tools, that kind of thing,” said Sunny Sachdev. “And, in Bangkok, there is a whole ecosystem of secondhand goods coming in from Japan as well. It’s a real thing because Japanese people have limited space so they recycle like crazy and that means we get these containers full of amazing old clothes, furniture, and instruments sent here. It usually comes down by train or truck to the border markets, where pickers dig through it all, and then it slowly makes its way into Bangkok through different hands. That’s how instruments like mandolins and banjos end up here. Those instruments are not super common, but they do pop up. A lot of the time, they were just for decoration at first, just hanging on the wall to add to the atmosphere. But, one day he looked around and thought, ‘Maybe I should actually learn to play some of these instruments.’ That’s when things shifted from just collecting pieces of Americana to becoming a part of the music itself.”
Coming across various acoustic instruments is a cool experience on its own, no matter where you live. What amazingly came next in this case, however, was the discovery of bluegrass music. “For a lot of folks here in Thailand, the first connection to ‘bluegrass’ wasn’t the music in that style, as instead it came from an obsession with country music and cowboy culture,” said Sachdev. “A case in point are the festivals we used to have that were called ‘country bluegrass,’ yet they were really more about dressing up than anything else. People would show up in cowboy hats, fringed vests, and even feathered headdresses. It was more like a Wild West costume party than a jam. But every now and then, you’d see a banjo on stage, even if it wasn’t being played bluegrass style. Still, that little detail of a banjo being there planted a seed. That curiosity led some people to dig deeper and someone would stumble across a Doc Watson video or an old Flatt & Scruggs clip on YouTube. When that happened, they suddenly realized that there was this whole other world behind these instruments, something raw and real, and older than mainstream country music.”
Modern technology had a hand in turning Sachdev into a bluegrass fan, and that came in the form of the phenomenon that is the Canadian band The Dead South. The group just headlined at MerleFest 2025 and did so after achieving incredible success on YouTube. Their video of the 2017 song “In Hell, I’ll Be In Good Company” blew up and soon hit half a million views and it soared from there. Now, eight years later, that video has garnered 443 million views, and they now have 29 other videos with a million views or more.
“As for me, I came in through a different door via The Dead South,” said Sachdev. “I saw one of their songs pop up in my feed, and something about it just grabbed me. That rhythm, that banjo; it all had this punch to it. So, I followed the thread, started watching banjo lesson videos online, and eventually I found Tony Trischka’s posts and that opened up a whole new world. After that, it was over for me and I was all in.”
Now on the hard but rewarding trail of learning how to play an instrument and learning how to play bluegrass music as well, Sachdev was happy to be pointed in the right direction. “It’s definitely challenging, especially starting out without much of a bluegrass scene around here in Thailand,” said Sachdev. “But, what really kept me going was finding this little jam in Bangkok, right outside of a vintage shop. The owner Prawit was picking on his porch, playing actual bluegrass music, not just folk or country covers. He had a friend with him, Tim Penn, a banjo player from Chicago who lived in Japan and made his living playing music on the streets. They let me sit in, even though I couldn’t really keep up at first. I’d just play quietly behind them, trying to hang on and learn their repertoire. That became the main spark, the thing that made me want to get better, just so I could really play along. The best part was how relaxed and welcoming it felt. It wasn’t about showing off or being perfect. It felt like hanging out with friends and trading stories, sharing tunes, and laughing between songs. That sense of community made it all feel worth it.”
In other words, Sachdev and crew went through the same things that beginning bluegrass musicians go through here in the U.S., in Japan, Australia, the Czech Republic, or anywhere else the music is being pursued.
“What was also game-changing for me was finding websites like Artist Works, where I could get actual feedback from players like Tony Trischka,” said Sachdev. “I couldn’t believe someone at that level would take the time to help a guy learning how to the banjo from halfway across the world. It made the whole journey feel connected, like we were part of something bigger. I loved it so much that I wanted to build this into a proper community, so I started Bluegrass Underground Bangkok, and that was the catalyst that brought people together. Now, it has become a destination for travelers to find bluegrass music in Thailand.”
The Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Jams usually happen every Sunday.
“The amount of people that show up really varies,” said Sachdev. “Sometimes it’s a small, relaxed group of five or six people, and other times we’ll have 15 to 20 people, especially when we post events on our Bluegrass Underground Bangkok Facebook page. That page has kind of become the central hub for the scene here. You can see videos from past jams there, including some gatherings that were casual and some pretty packed with players and listeners. The bonus is, since we’re the only bluegrass jam in Bangkok, and with Bangkok itself being such a tourist hub, we almost always get one or two traveling musicians dropping in for each session. It’s wild. Sometimes they’re just passing through with a fiddle or mandolin in their suitcase. Other times we get people who actually live here, like Sometaya Mitsutaka, who leads the legendary Japanese band The Bluegrass Police, or Baron Collins-Hill, the mandolin player behind one of the best YouTube lesson channels out there. So even when the group is small, the musicianship can be incredible.”
Like in music scenes found all over the planet, Sunday was chosen as the official jam day for a practical reason. “It started as a Sunday thing mostly because of one key reason, our bassist,” said Sachdev. “He works as a bartender at a fancy rooftop bar and only has Sundays off. And, as anyone in bluegrass knows, good bassists are hard to come by. So, we built the jam around his schedule, and Sundays became the regular day. But over time, it’s shifted a bit. We started doing it on Fridays more often, as it is a nice way to kick off the weekend, and sometimes we skip a week and do it at a brewery or another venue instead. It’s a bit fluid now, but we try to keep it consistent enough that people can find us. The vibe stays the same, either way, as in pickin’, hanging out, and making space for anyone who wants to jump in.”
While the growth of bluegrass music may be slow in Thailand, just as it can be in certain areas here in the U.S. and around the planet as a unique non-pop music genre; the net is being thrown out there and the interest continues to grow. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in players, with more folks picking up the banjo, fiddle, or mandolin for the first time and wanting to join in,” said Sachdev. “Honestly, we’ve seen an even bigger increase in listeners. Every time we play at a brewery, the place gets packed. Our last big event was at the South Eastern Old Time Gathering and we were expecting maybe 50 people, and yet over 200 showed up. It blew our minds. People are also starting to reach out through social media now, asking how to join, what to bring, and where to learn how to play the music. Some just want to watch, some want to jam. I think it’s the warm, welcoming vibe that draws them in. We’re not trying to be perfect. We’re just trying to have fun, and that seems to connect with people. And it helps that we often play right in the middle of a busy night market. Locals and tourists alike all stop, listen, and they get curious. It’s probably the last place you’d expect to hear bluegrass, which makes it all the more memorable.”
Technology works in both directions, as discussed earlier, and now more Americans and more bluegrass lovers from other countries, are seeking out the impressive bluegrass jam that exists in one of the most distinctive regions in the Northern Hemisphere. “Yes, it happens pretty often,” said Sachdev. “At least once a month, we’ll get someone reaching out to us, usually a traveler who plays bluegrass music and is surprised to find a jam in Bangkok. Some of them plan ahead and message us, others just stumble upon it and light up when they hear the music. When we can, we try to make space for them to join, and if they don’t bring an instrument, we’ll usually find one for them to borrow. There’s always a spare guitar or mandolin lying around. The only tricky part is timing as most of our jams happen on Fridays or on weekends, so folks who swing by midweek sometimes miss out. But when it works out, it’s always a great moment. It’s been happening more and more, at least once or twice a month, ever since we started the Bluegrass Underground Bangkok social media pages and posting content regularly.
“People from all over the world, from players to fans to curious musicians that play other kinds of music, they will find us online and reach out,” continues Sachdev. “Some are already planning their trips to Thailand and they will message ahead to see if there’ll be a jam while they’re in town. Others just show up with an instrument in hand, ready to play. We’ve had people join us from all over, coming in from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Argentina, it’s just wild. The online presence and online jam videos have been a game changer for growing the scene here.”
Earlier in 2025, Sachdev made the trip from Bangkok to the U.S. to take in a bluegrass festival in Las Vegas. Two years ago, he attended one of Pete Wernick’s Jam Camps at MerleFest, where he also met other bluegrass stars. Coming to the land where bluegrass music was born is a special journey.
“It’s my Disneyland, especially the banjo camps,” said Sachdev. “I love the small towns, and I love the road trips, which are my favorite thing to do in the USA, and I love finally getting to meet the people that I’ve followed online for years. But, the best part is hanging out at banjo camps and talking setups, trying different instruments, and learning from players I’ve looked up to for years. The only challenge so far is the Bangkok time zone and the jet lag that comes with it, as I start fading just as everyone else is warming up for late-night jams. Still, every minute of it is pure joy.”
The names of the regular musicians who have made the Bluegrass Underground Bangkok jam sessions a special event in Thailand include Timothy Pennington, Prawit Chamnandechakul, Changching, Sunny Sachdev, Anna Whelehan, Chaya Gonzales, Suwit Khamsunthon, Thaveewong Prasopsant, Scott Catalano, Jittima R Catalano and Thanachai Ketan.
More information, photos, and videos can be found at www.facebook.com/bluegrassbkk and www.youtube.com/@bluegras.
