Neşet Ertaş

Neşet Ertaş (1938 – 25 September 2012) was a Turkish folk music singer, lyricist, and virtuoso of the traditional Turkish instrument the bağlama. His profession in Turkish is known as halk ozanı, which literally means "folk bard". Yaşar Kemal gave Ertaş his nickname, "Bozkırın Tezenesi" (literally: "Plectrum of the Steppe"), writing it in a book he gave him as a gift.

Early years and family life

Neşet Ertaş was born in 1938, in Kırtıllar, a village in Kırşehir. His father, Muharrem Ertaş, was also a folk poet his mother, Döne Koç, was Muharrem's second wife, his first wife, Hatice, having died early. Neşet was the second eldest of four children; he had an older half-brother, Necati, from his father's first marriage and two younger sisters, Ayşe and Nadiye.

His mother Döne also died early, and his father married again, to Arzu. From this third marriage four sons, Ekrem, Ali, Muharrem and Cemal, were born.

Neşet married Leyla, a singer from Bolu, in 1960 in Ankara, where the two had met while performing at a night club. She bore him two daughters and a son. The couple divorced after ten years of marriage.