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slackkeymike
Lokahi
440 Posts |
 Posted - 08/09/2005 : 6:33:59 PM
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I do not think (could be wrong) that this should be in Talk Story...
Anyways, at the risk that this might already have been discussed, I was wondering how you all discovered Slack Key? I can understand you folks who live on the Islands, but here on the mainland...that is more of an interesting story to me...
I'll tell my story... it ultimately relates to Dancing Cat. My wife & I went to Kau'ai by ourselves, no kids 7 or 8 years ago for the first time (to any Hawaiian Island). I decided to look for some music to get prepared. I think the way it happened, my wife bought Ray Kane's Punahele (Dancing Cat). Being a guitar player, I was struck by the simple beauty of the music. It took 7 years for me to ever consider playing it...is that not strange?
But, I found TaroPatch by accident, and ever since, thats what I have been doing musicaly.
How about some of you?
Mike
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Aloha, Mike |
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n/a
deleted
50 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 03:34:09 AM
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When I was working at Mauna Loa Mac Nut, a co-worker named Carlson Kukona, who lived in the Homelands across from Onekahakaha beach in Hilo, showed me some slack-key on my old Epiphone. Most of my best memories revolve around Carlson, including harvesting Ginger at his brother's farm, surfing at drain-pipes in Kalapana (before the lava) and hiking to green sands beach.
I heard he is no longer got at Mauna Loa. Anybody know what he's up to? |
Edited by - n/a on 08/10/2005 09:26:04 AM |
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Leonard
Lokahi
USA
124 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 04:01:19 AM
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| My wife and I were visiting Hawaii for the first time. Went to a guitar shop in Honolulu (I think Island Guitars) looking at ukuleles. Saw the book by Mark Hanson and bought it on curiosity. I don't think I knew what slack key was at that moment. I wasn't playing much guitar at the time, but had played a lot many years before. I didn't do anything with the book at that time. A couple of years later, my uncle died and I was asked to play my classical guitar at his funeral. I enjoyed playing the guitar again, and got a steel-string. Then I ran across my Hanson book again, which was lying around the house unused. Started working through it and loved it. Haven't stopped since. LRR |
Be the change that you wish to see in the world. M. Gandhi |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2164 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 04:02:36 AM
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I was working with a kid from Kau'ai who was working on the mainland. I was a Bluegrass nut with a cheap mandolin and he had an old warped 0018 Martin. Iborrowed an old Silvertone from a friend. Only 3 lessons:
1) Dis your t'umb. Come back in 3 weeks.
2) Dis da vamp ( ha'oles always fo'get da vamp ). Can play anykine as long as it fit.
3) Dese da chords.
Keep da t'umb moving, play da right chord at da right time, an' no fo'get da vamp. 'At's it. |
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Admin
Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 04:50:00 AM
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| Kaua`i seems to have a common thread in these initial posts. I was visiting Kaua`i years ago (~'93) and saw a slack key documentary on TV. Around '96, I went to see Raymond Kane, George Kahumoku and Keola Beamer in concert. I've been hooked ever since. |
Andy |
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chunky monkey
Ha`aha`a
USA
1018 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 05:30:21 AM
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| I was looking for blues CDs in a used bin at Music Trader and found Dennis Kamakahi's Pua`ena album misplaced. I bought it on a whim and was hooked after listening through one pass. I decided that I needed to learn this stuff. |
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 05:52:44 AM
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A fellow Ry Cooder fan found the "Volume 1" Gabby Band LP back in 1975, and I started looking for more slack key right away, mostly in thrift shops, where people dumped their souvenirs of trips to Hawai`i. Found Keola's first LP, Atta's solo album, a mid-period Sons of Hawai`i album, but no more Gabby for about 20 years, when Hawaiian-label reissues started showing up in mainland stores. Saw Raymond and Elodia at the American Fingerstyle Festival in Milwaukee in '89 and Led when he was part of the Steel String Masters tour a year or two later. Got the first batch of Dancing Cat CDs to review for Acoustic Guitar in 1994 and was in hog heaven. The Dancing Cat tours and San Mateo festivals exposed bunches of us old folkies (now old fogies) to even more players, including some young guy named Landeza, barely out of short pants. Now when a slack key tour comes through Minneapolis, the Cedar Cultural Center is packed (and the players all wear long-johns).
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Peter Medeiros
`Olu`olu
546 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 07:05:15 AM
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There was always music in our house. From my very first thoughts as a kid over fifty years ago, I remember my dad serenading us whenever he got the chance, after work, before and after dinner, before church. There was always some instrument within reach laying nearby that he would pick up and start playing. It was something he did as natural as breathing I guess. He learned the old style from his mom and tutuwahine (grandmother).
In the old days when there was no radio or air conditioned homes, there was a custom in many of old Honolulu's neighborhoods where all of the families would sit out on the lanai or veranda during the evening hours after dinner. My great grandmother, grandmother, father and aunties and uncles would go from house to house visiting and serenading their neighbors.
One of my dad's favorite stories is about how he ran away from home at the age of fourteen and joined the Hawaii National Guard because he had heard they needed a banjo player. He went AWOL the first day when he had to peel more potatoes than he had ever seen in his life. He returned home that night, but the battalion sergeant major lived just up the street and informed his parents that their oldest son was now in the Hawaii National Guard. He stayed with the Guard for fourteen years. He was a pretty accomplished player -- he could play anything with strings -- and was in fact a professional musician singing with the Johnny Noble Band and Hawkshaw Howell Band, but he kept his day job for forty-two years. His advice to me "Remember to always keep the day job."
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Keone
Akahai
50 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 07:10:05 AM
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| I have been a guitar player for a long time and have always been interested in fingerstyle acoustic guitar. I had played in open tunings, mainly taro and open D, but playing mainly blues, slide guitar, trying to figure out some Leo Kottke things. Well, my fiance at the time (now wife) happened to be hawaiian and when we went back to visit her family in Oahu, it turned out that her whole family was musical and got together and jammed. Since I could play guitar, I joined in; however, there was one Uncle who played what I thought were really beautiful melody lines and bass line, fingerpicking. It turns out he studied slack with Auntie Alice and he really got me into it. Whereas, my guitar used to be in standard tuning all the time, and rarely in open tuning, it is quite the opposite now. I can't remember even the last time I put it into standard and if I did it was for one song and then back into an open tuning! |
Keone |
Edited by - Keone on 08/10/2005 08:22:16 AM |
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Puna
Lokahi
USA
227 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 08:01:34 AM
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In 1994 my fiance and I eloped to get married in Hawaii. I'd never been, and really had no desire to go, but it made her happy.
I was totally blown away (still am) by the beauty of the islands, the people, the music. A few months after the wedding (private ceremony, outside, half in English and hapa 'olelo makuahine) we got the video. In addition to the 'ukulele seranade during the ceremony, there was also this beautiful song behind the opening sequence. Didn't know what it was, or how to find out. Sort of forgot about it.
Fast forward two years - anniversary trip to Kauai. Owner of the B&B we were staying at in Kapa'a gave us a cassette to listen to in the rental car. Driving around, all of a sudden there was 'our wedding song' on the cassette. Took it out - unlabeled! Rats!
Into Kapa'a to the nearest music store, where we found out that we'd been listening to Hapa "Lei Pikake". Bought it. Also (since it had a variety of artists and we didn't know any), bought "Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters".
Hoo, that did it. Started tracking down each artist's solo CDs. Stalked Keola when he came to Seattle as part of his "Mauna Kea-White Mountain Journal" debut tour (managed to corner him at the downtown Tower Records store). Some of the music began playing in my head even when I wasn't listening to anything.
But I still didn't play. I'd played guitar a lot in college, but had gradually given it up. This really pissed off my wife, who had heard me play a few times and was trying to think of ways to get me going again. So, in late December 2000, I was looking at Keola's website (while goofing off at work) and saw an announcement for the very first Aloha Music Camp. All sold out. So, as a joke I sent the link to my wife saying that 'this would have been the perfect Christmas gift'.
At Christmas I was given a card to open. A Christmas card, handwritten, welcoming us to the Aloha Music Camp, signed by Keola and Mark. She had called Mark and talked him into making space for us.
So here I am...playing slack key, learning to speak the 'olelo, practicing my oli and nose-flute, certified lomi practitioner, studying the history, looking into getting a master's degree in Hawaiian studies at UH-Hilo, and working on a three year plan to move to our house on the Big Island. |
Puna |
Edited by - Puna on 08/10/2005 08:08:05 AM |
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Puna
Lokahi
USA
227 Posts |
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Kapila Kane
Ha`aha`a
USA
1051 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2005 : 11:18:18 PM
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| I blame it all on Konabob, and the Bossonuevoslackbass. |
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marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2005 : 04:31:52 AM
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in 2000 i played a lot of bluegrass and had learned how to fingerpick. i liked hapa-haole music but didn't know much else about hawaiian music. i was learning the blues and browsing the elderly online catalog, i saw a book on slack key guitar and bought it on a whim. after it arrived i pulled the instructional CD out and took it with me on my drive to work. i popped it into the CD player and was about to pull on the freeway when the first song - "isa lei" by keola beamer - came on.
the emotion in the song moved me to tears. i pulled over and stopped the car.
that night i tuned my guitar to F wahine, and started working through the tab. i was able to create a bit of the emotion that i heard in keola's version. it was like someone had just told me a secret about guitars; in a few minutes of playing the tab i was getting something out of my guitar that i had never thought i could have before.
since then i'm embarassed myself countless times - i've inadvertently insulted cyril pahinui and nona beamer, just for starters - as this slack key virus has taken over my body. although, this year at AMC mark nelson got me infected with a new bug - swing ukulele - that is broadening my view.
aloha,
keith
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2005 : 07:16:46 AM
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Another car story --
Couple of years ago, first visit to Hawai'i. Driving from airport to Ka'anapali listening to Met. opera on the air. Opera pau, channel surfing -- landed on an amazing piece of music -- had to pull to the side and listen, tears behind the eyes. Beamer's Ku'u Lei Awapuhi. 6 months later, coming up on 50 I asked myself if I'm gonna try to learn to play the guitar/slack key, or die not having tried. Bottom line -- still alive, still playing. |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2005 : 08:34:01 AM
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Sarah and I came to slack key because of tropical fish, killer hurricanes, language and culture – with a little help from our friends.
We are fish watchers, as some people are birdwatchers, and have been all over the Caribbean doing that. We rented a house on St. John, USVI to spend a couple of weeks never being dry. But, Mother Nature intervened with Marilyn and Luis, and the house was utterly destroyed. So, we quickly searched the Earth for some place that was pretty and had lots of shore entry points, decided on Maui, and became tourists. The fishies and octopi were swell, but we felt very strange, even foolish, not knowing what things meant or even how to pronounce anything, or even local customs. We have been lots of places and always knew the language and culture and history. When we got home, it nagged at us and we decided to learn everything we could and go back and stop being “tourists”. Sarah started on language and I started on history and we both started learning about culture (actually, cultures, plural). Music, as an important part of culture presented itself immediately. So, I wrote an email to Auntie Maria asking her to suggest recordings and among all the things she told us about, slack key was on top of the list. Uncle Ray’s “Punahele” was the first and it sounded, to us, as intricate and as lovely as anything we had ever heard (and we were Baroque nuts at the time). More Dancing Cat albums followed and we were getting hooked.
Before going back to Maui (1997, I think), I wrote Uncle Charlie Maxwell (he had a web site at the time in which he answered all kinds of questions) and asked him to suggest someone who could tell us about slack key. He suggested Uncle Sol Kawaihoa at the Bailey House in Wailuku, who was giving lectures and demos at the time. Being the kind of people we are, we scouted out the place a day ahead of time and bumped into Uncle who immediately took us into a small room and began to talk story and play for us – about 2 hours of answering questions and music. Next day we went to his lecture and got his handouts and, at the end, he suggested we come back the next afternoon to sit in on a jam (as observers of course). We got there and Uncle and Kevin and Henry Meyer (Kevin’s teacher) were there and we listened and talked way past sundown. It was magic. Afterwards, Sarah said, “You know, I can do this and I want to.” We went back to meet up with Kevin and Uncle, and lots of others, each week during that stay.
At home, she first taught herself how to play the guitar (never having played one before) on an old hand-me-down “classical”, and she started collecting books of tab and videos, and at the same time she taught herself the Hawaiian language, so she could sing, too, of course, but also to understand the Hawaiian “world view”. About 2 years later, I got jealous of the beautiful music she was making and tried to do the same thing, with lots less success. Sarah just got better at everything and I got tendonitis. But, we made many very good friends and kept going back to the Islands to make more – just as we have made good friends here. In a real sense, we “bought the whole package” of Hawaiian culture and it is an integral part of our lives; slack key is important to us, but only one part of the whole thing. Oh yeah, we don’t play any other kind of guitar music, or any other instrument, and don’t care to.
...Reid |
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Larry Goldstein
Lokahi
267 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2005 : 09:40:27 AM
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It’s been fun to read these responses. It’s been nice to learn others had the same emotional response to slack key that I had, but I’m not surprised.
In preparation for my fourth or fifth trip to “the islands” it seemed like a good idea to know more than just the birds and fish. With music always being an important part of my life it was natural to want to learn about Hawaiian music and the people who play it. As it happened Keola was coming to Olympia, Washington for a concert. Suffice to say the man and his music struck a chord in me the likes of which I had never felt before.
Today I still listen to some jazz, but the music that dominates the daily commute, my home and my life is nahenahe.
Aloha,
Larry
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