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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
 Posted - 11/03/2003 : 10:20:22 PM
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Somehow Kapono Beamer's album "For Sweetheart Grandma," slipped through the cracks for me -- recently got a copy and I'm hooked. Here are a few of my thoughts on this 1998 album:
Playing slack key if you don't sing can become a bit of a problem. Of course, that can also become an opportunity for some really creative work. That's part of why Kapono Beamer's "For Sweetheart Grandma," is such a treat for me. Here is SUPERB instrumental guitar, Superb slack key. Of course you might say "How can anyone miss playing an album of the music of Helen Desha Beamer?" Come on over and I'll play you some pretty bad versions of these wonderful songs. But Beamer sets the bar really high with his arrangements. Wonderful phrasing, passages so sweet you can't help but get chicken skin, chords spicey enough to balance out the sweetness. (This morning I was driving in a beautiful part of Santa Clara Valley - but one which I drive regularly and frequently don't really "see" - with this album on -- The musiv opened me so much that I had a "peak experience" - saw the beauty of the landscape like never before.) Not that every songs works equally well for me - the ones which emphasize more strumming are less effective for me -- but still VERY worth a listen.
The only caveat I could offer is for "slack key fundamentalists," those folk with the WWAAD bracelets. (What Would Aunite Alice Do?) I'm sure that they will feel this album leans for too much towards jazz. I guess it's a good thing that throughout the history of slack key the Masters have resisted all other influences.
If you don't have this album already - you're in for a real treat if you get a copy.
Raymond
San Jose
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Auntie Maria
Ha`aha`a
USA
1918 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2003 : 09:30:06 AM
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If this is Kapono Beamer CD that has swept you away (wonderful stuff!), the true title is "Great Grandmother, Great Grandson":
http://www.mele.com/v3/info/1300.htm
Kapono Beamer is an outstanding guitarist -- slack key, as well as not -- and that he usually doesn't sing, allows that magnificent guitar work to be the "star".
-- auntie maria |
Auntie Maria
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2003 : 1:02:25 PM
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That, indeed, is the album - and has become my favorite of his catalog.
Raymond |
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