Country Music Receives Astounding Welcome from Vietnamese Fans

 

Jesse rocks the crowd in HCMC

The Country Western Jesse Dayton Band brought a unique flavor of American culture to southern Vietnam with sold-out performances for 750 in Ho Chi Minh City on May 11 and 700 in the coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on May 12.  The audience demanded two encores in HCMC, and in the US Consulate General’s first American cultural program in Vung Tau, youth held up “We Love You” posters and chanted “one more” for an encore.  The band also led a master class at the HCMC Conservatory of Music for 75 students.  In appreciation, the conservatory students sang a popular Vietnamese song and provided the arrangement for the group.

In a pre-show interview with Vietnam National Television in Ho Chi Minh City, Jesse Dayton said, “This is a chance for us to bring American folk songs closer to Vietnamese people as well as to learn the features of Vietnamese folk music.”  For a genre of American music not heard live in Vietnam since the pre-war era and relatively unknown except through recordings, the public enthusiasm for and understanding of country music was exceptional.