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Published on November 3, 2007

 Joe Cummings, the author of more than 30 guidebooks on Asia and, more recently, consummate books on Thai art and culture, is running his fingers over the worn frets of his 1957 Fender Telecaster. He's circling into the dark mysteries of rhythms and beats in old Asian music.

"Well, it sounds something like this," he says, picking out a series of notes and chords.

It's 3am in a dusty bar on a dead-end soi in a seedy warren of old Chiang Mai.

Marie Dance, the British singer of the Tonic Rays, and Joe, who plays lead guitar in her band, are tumbling into the music zone. Joe's words speed up. He's almost ready, you can feel his words circling down into the mystical heart of mor lam, literally, master of verse, the bedrock of authentic Lao-Thai music, somewhat akin to the dark, mysterious 19th-century ballads sung in the hollows of West Virginia.

The soul of Isaan culture is about to open up to the band members who are hanging on Joe's words.

"The lyrics are more hardcore than look thung," or children of the fields, the local equivalent of country and western, says Cummings, "with more sex, violence, murder, suicide, politics. It's a little like the Mississippi Delta blues ... Raw."

And then Cummings makes a very Cummings connection: "The main instrument is the khaen, the traditional Lao-Thai panpipe," he says, "but it's the beat that's interesting - usually a quick three-eight tempo with a strong bass line reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix's 'Third Stone from the Sun'."

And there you have it. You might call it the New Joe or the Second Joe.

The next morning, eating jok -  rice congee - at his favourite street vendor's five-pot, three-table establishment, he agrees his life no longer revolves around guidebook writing. He's now mining the knowledge reaped from decades of roaming Thailand, Laos and Burma, and translating it into beautifully written and reasoned books such as "Lanna Renaissance" and "Chiang Mai Style".

"I guess you could say I have a dual life now," he says, digging into the bowl of creamy rice. "My day job is still writing about art, architecture, culture and food - mostly for large-format books."

"But at night I'm playing rock and roll. Sometimes it feels like there's two of me in one tired body."

In a way, Cummings has circled back to where he started as a 15-year-old kid in Washington DC, where he played in his first rock 'n' roll band and was hooked. By the time he was 20, he was touring with the Fog, a band that opened for the likes of Blue Oyster Cult, Uriah Heep and Edgar Winter's White Trash. Arriving in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1977, he jammed in rock bars on Sukhumvit Road.

Two years ago, having just completed a big book project, he met Marie, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist from Brighton who was living and playing music in Pai, the small, hip, get-away town beyond the mountains north of Chiang Mai.

"When we formed a band, we got more serious about writing and performing originals, and named it the Tonic Rays because we liked the sound of it," says Cummings. The Tonic Rays just completed its first 10-song, eponymous disc, and are preparing for a promotional tour of clubs in November. Visit myspace.com/tonicrays for details.

In Pai, the band's musical base is the Be-Bop Bar, renowned for its live music, featuring two or three different bands each night. Last year, and again this year, Joe put together a backing band for Mason Ruffner, a former guitarist with Bob Dylan, to gig with them at Be-Bop. He has done the same for New Orleans-style pianist Mitch Woods.

"Pai has one of the best live-music venues in Thailand, outside Bangkok," says Cummings, "and it's probably the fastest-growing tourist destination. The place is full of Thai hipsters and artists, and a lot more of them are moving there from Bangkok and Chiang Mai."

When Cummings was jamming on Sukhumvit's emerging rock 'n' roll scene, the rock classic "Satisfaction" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards was a staple of the day. Little did Cummings know his love of rock and all things Thai would come together in 2003 when Jagger asked Cummings to show him around Bangkok.

After touring the canals off the Chao Phya River - with Jagger giving Cummings advice on life, fame and love - he concluded that Jagger was "eternally hip".

When Jagger asked Cummings to show him around Bangkok's famous nightlife, he made him promise not to write about what they did.

"I don't blame him," says Cummings. "We had some fun."

Roy Hamric

 Special to The Nation