When I first encountered Enrique Ugalde, a solidly built, ethnically Aztecan cab driver in Portland, he was softly singing overtones into my ex-girlfriend’s ear outside a music festival afterparty. Not for nothing, apparently, does the high shaman of Tuva shout “Dren! Dren!” (a Tuvan dirty word meaning major-league wood) whenever Ugalde comes near. Or maybe it is for no reason—he never explained the habit. In any case, Enrique is officially the third-best Tuvan throat singer in the world, the first and only non-Tuvan to ever receive the distinction of even placing.
