But while Lin has remained true to his roots, his music has evolved. After releasing Getting Dark, he toured in Europe and the US and began working on his new album with acoustic guitarist Ken Ohtake, 31, of Tokyo and Okinawan musician Takashi Hirayasu, 54, whom he met in 2003 at the Migration Music Festival.
Planting Trees, which comes with extensive liner notes in Chinese, Japanese and English, is a tender reflection on the hardships faced by Taiwan's farmers and a tribute to their declining way of life in the face of reduced subsidies and trade liberalization.
From a musical point of view the album is far and away the best realized of Lin's work and marks a new stage in his evolution from protest singer to sophisticated musician. The sound is a unique blend of Lin's Hakka singing and folk-tinged acoustics with the minimalist sound of Hirayasu's sanhsin, a banjo-like instrument from Okinawa, and Hirayasu's breezy acoustic guitar.
Ohtake said recording was a draining process, especially with the album's ninth track Thanks to You, Young Man (後生打幫), in which Lin expresses his gratitude to Yang Ju-men (楊儒門), the so-called "rice bomber" who carried out a bombing campaign to protest Taiwan's accession to the World Trade Organization.
The song was written after Lin's mother saw a TV news story on the bomber and remarked that the man was helping people like her and his father. Lin gave the melody guitar a feminine sound, like his mother. "Ken understood the story," Lin said.
"He gave the guitar a lot of energy." Ohtake said of his approach: "Only angry is easy. Only sadness is easy," he said in English. "I wanted to try to express not only sadness, not only sentimental… . I wanted to express what I can not explain."
More important than helping Lin make what will most likely be seen as one of this year's most memorable albums, the two dedicated musicians helped Lin take his craft to the next level. Gone is the rough protest singer, and in his place is a sophisticated artist who exudes confidence on stage.
"Sheng-xiang learned a lot from those two about the attitude of being a professional musician as well as techniques," Kuo said. "(He) has never lacked commitment, but as a professional musician you need something else … that deep love of music and the desire to make it better, to sharpen your technique and always feel dissatisfied with your own music."
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