Banyen Rakkaen is a Thai mor lam

Mor lam

Mor lam is a traditional Lao form of song in Laos and Isan.Mor lam means expert song, or expert singer, referring to the music or artist respectively. Other romanisations used include mo lam, maw lam, maw lum, moh lam and mhor lum...

and Thai luk thung

Luk thung

Luk Thung refers to the most popular form of a style of music found in Thailand. The term is short for pleng luk thung .Luk Thung songs typically reflect the hardship of everyday life among the rural poor. Tempos tend to be slow, and singers use an expressive singing style with a lot of vibrato...

singer. She was born on October 14, 1952 to an Isan family in Ubon Ratchathani

Ubon Ratchathani

Ubon Ratchathani is a city on the Mun River in the south-east of the Isan region of Thailand. It is known as Ubon for short. The name means "Royal Lotus City." The provincial seal features a pond with a lotus flower and leaves in a circular frame. Ubon is the administrative centre of Ubon...

 province in the Isan

Isan

Isan is the northeastern region of Thailand. It is located on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Prachinburi mountains south of Nakhon Ratchasima...

 region of Northeast Thailand.

She is a student of Ajarn Chawiwan Damnoen.

Banyen was the first national mor lam star, whose appearances on television in the 1980s brought the form to an audience beyond its northeastern heartland.
She bridges the gap between traditional and modern mor lam, normally appearing in traditional clothing but using electrified instruments and singing luk thung and dance-influenced songs.

She is a single mom with three children and has traveled the world for local concerts by ethnic Laotian-Thai people (mostly in the US).