Dan Barry wrote about them in one of his columns in the New York Times. They were performing at a clinic for recovering addicts.

“…

METROPOLITAN DESK

About New York; Carrying Tunes All the Way From Sri Lanka

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Printer-Friendly Save Article By DAN BARRY (NYT) 793 words Published: March 3, 2004

THE recovering addicts and alcoholics settled into the community room at Coney Island Hospital’s substance-abuse clinic for a bit of what their counselors call socialization. More than a few kept their winter coats on, as if to signal an intention to leave at the first opportunity — even if this was a party. At the front sat two clients who had lived the last 365 days one day at a time, an achievement worthy of celebration. In the back was a cake, purchased from Costco for $14.99 and offering drizzled best wishes across its vanilla frosting. And unpacking a guitar and a tambourine were the featured performers: Eranga and Prianga.

A husband-and-wife singing act.

From Sri Lanka.

Hmmm, wondered Lisa Baron, the hospital’s chief psychologist. Is this a good match of audience and entertainment?

Dr. Baron had arranged for a late-morning performance through Hospital Audiences Inc., a nonprofit organization that sends entertainers to medical facilities and senior centers, group homes and nursing homes. The entertainers generally get $75 for an hour of work, and the sick and the fragile get an hour of welcome distraction.

It is a luck-of-the-draw arrangement — you get whatever act is available — but Hospital Audiences had provided her with good entertainers in the past. A musical magician. A very engaging poet. And, of course, that wonderful Russian circus act, the one with dogs leaping through hoops.

But Eranga and Prianga? Hmmm.

Eranga and Prianga Pieris, who were now setting up their sound system near the storage room, left Sri Lanka nearly 30 years ago to sing their way around the world. Their musical journey led, finally, to an apartment on the Lower East Side and a preponderance of bookings at libraries, schools and nursing homes.

Now and then they land bit parts on television. Prianga has played a nameless mechanic on ”The Sopranos” and a hotel clerk on ”Law and Order.” Eranga appeared once in a TV movie that starred Lucille Ball. But mostly they sing, tailoring their act to fit the audience; their Catskills shows include a Yiddish song or two.

Today, though, the emphasis would be more Caribbean, more Latin — with a touch of Sri Lankan schmaltz.

…”

(I think I sent this story in a few months back)

The couple and the melody are both charming and it’s interesting how this song’s tune sounds slightly similar to hawaiian and tongan songs.

for those TO-philes out there, here’s the link to Toronto’s own murmurs, a related (and earlier) project than storycorp