"A blind San Francisco blues singer's journey to becoming a master of Tuvan throat singing is the subject of Roko and Adrian Belic's Oscar-nominated documentary. Paul Pena became fascinated with the Tuvan art form after hearing it on a Russian radio broadcast; he then met the Mongolian masters on a U.S. tour. The Tuvans were so impressed with Pena that they invited him to Tuva's annual singing competition; his adventures there form the heart of Genghis Blues." - Netflix blurb

Did you ever see the Nova program several years ago about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman? "Last Journey of a Genius" I think it was called. Richard Feynman always wanted to go to Tuva, which is on the north side of Mongolia, yes that Mongolia that is just south of Siberia. It is a small nation that was overtaken by Russia, but has managed to keep its culture and traditions. Feynman never made it there, but his legacy was the Friends of Tuva, and they assisted and/or encouraged Paul Pena's efforts to go there and participate in the singing competition and travel around the country, which is about the size of North Dakota.

Throat singing is really different, and Pena, who wrote that song "Jet Airliner" made famous by the Steve Miller Band, taught himself using CDs of Tuvan singers. He also taught himself enough of the language to be able to converse pretty well when he got there, and compose blues/throat singing songs on the fly in Tuvan. He's blind, and there are no Tuvan/English dictionaries, so he did this by using Russian/English to convert to Russian/Tuvan. The instrument he uses to read books converts each letter into raised dots (not Braille exactly) and so this would have taken a lot of converting and study.

Whenever I see an artist like Paul Pena rising above his physical problems and always learning and creating, I am amazed at the manifestations of true natural talent, and the power of the art over adversity.