Will Muhlis Akarsu reconcile?

Muhlis Akarsu was born in 1948 in the village of Leşker, now known as Minarekaya, in the Kangal district of Sivas. Like all the people of Minarekaya, he was the youngest of the three sons of Bayram Efendi, who was a farmer. He finished primary school in his village in 1962.

He learned the Alevi-Bektashi culture. He started playing the saz and singing folk songs, deyish and nefes. The beauty of his voice attracted attention. He sang zakir with his bağlama. The first deysi he learned belonged to Pir Sultan:

"Let's go, crazy heart

No one knows us here

To present our carpet

No one comes to us

I drank water from a deep lake

I never stray from the right path

The wise ones are the moments from the wire

There is no one who knows among the ignorant

My Pir Sultan is a nomad

Opens his goods to the buyer

Guests come and go

There is no one who has fun and stays

He was under the influence of the Seyyids and Bards of the region. While studying at a secondary school in Malatya, he dropped out in the second grade due to financial difficulties.

After completing his military service, Muhlis Akarsu settled in Istanbul in 1970. Here he became acquainted with the folk songs of Mahzuni Şerif and Davut Sularî. He was following the footsteps of Davut Sularî in his first folk songs and saz playing.

Akarsu, who sang mostly masterful deyiş in those years, focused on reading his own deyiş from the beginning of the 80s. He had escaped the influence of Sulari and Mahzuni and started to form his own unique style. He had mastered the bağlama. He immediately attracted attention with the deyiş he sang and his soft vocal characters. He became an artist who could use his voice in the deyiş style.

Muhlis Akarsu did not break away from the Alevi-Bektashi âşık tradition. He sang many of the folk poets' sayings such as Pir Sultan and Kul Himmet without deviating from traditional patterns. He took the worldviews of folk poets such as Hacı Bektaşi Veli, Yunus Emre, Karacaoğlan, and Âşık Veysel as his guide and adopted love for humanity. He also dealt with love and tolerance in his sayings. From the late 1960s onwards, records were the means by which folk poets could reach wider audiences. Muhlis Akarsu also released his first 45 record in 1970...

In 1972, he married Muhibe Leyla Çiftlik, the daughter of Seyit Halil Çiftlik, whom he also respected very much. From this marriage, he had three daughters named Pınar, Çınar and Damla.

In the early 1980s, he brought up the short-armed bağlama played by Alevi Dedes. Again in the same year, he came up with the idea of ​​the “Muhabbet” series. In a short time, the Muhabbet group consisting of Arif Sağ, Muhlis Akarsu, Yavuz Top, Musa Eroğlu was established. The tapes recorded by this group attracted more attention than expected.

Muhlis Akarsu participated in the cultural activities of the Alevi community such as Hacı Bektaşi, Abdal Musa, Veli Baba, Pir Sultan etc. held every year.

Portuguese-Canadian singer Nelly Furtado used Muhlis Akarsu's phrase "Allah Allah Desem Gelsem" from his album "Ya Dost Ya Dost" without giving his name and permission in her song "Wait For You" from her album Loose, which has sold eight million copies worldwide.

The 1980s were the years when Akarsu found himself in music. Akarsu, who had shown himself with masterful deyiş songs until then, from the beginning of the 80s onwards, appeared as an artist whose expression in his deyiş songs was strong, who had mastered the bağlama and who could use his voice in the deyiş style.

Muhlis Akarsu, who became famous with the folk song genre of Bektashi literature and music, contributed to the revival and remembrance of many folk poets who lived in the past centuries by setting music to their poems. Emrah was among these minstrels.

From now on, I am angry with that guy.

It ruined my memory, I can't make peace anymore

If the whole world comes and punishes me

I turned my heart away from meeting you

The lyrics of this folk song belong to Emrah and it was compiled by Muhlis Akarsu by the TRT Music Department and its score was written by Erkan Sürmen.

Tomorrow, I will talk about how he fell into the rose-thorny path of minstreldom and his original works.