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Pupule
USA
4551 Posts |
 Posted - 03/17/2002 : 11:00:09 PM
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Must have been 1993. My first two CDs were John Keawe's Ho`oanea (1993) and a used copy of The Best of Keola & Kapono Beamer (1978, reissued 1990) purchased in Honolulu.
Found Hapa's debut album (1992) in Farmington, CT in 1995. Don't know how it got to the Farmington Mall, but I was lucky to find it.
My first show was Keola Beamer, George Kahumoku, Jr. and Uncle Raymond Kane in 1996 at the Sommerville Theater in MA. Watching Uncle Ray perform with oxygen tank and all was a moving experience. The music touched me, and I've been hooked ever since.
How'd you get started?
Andy
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Bruddah Chrispy
Lokahi
USA
164 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2002 : 11:15:46 AM
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Wow, tough question, brah. It seems like I've owned Country Comfort's We Are The Children since about the late 70s early 80s. Same with the Beamer's Honolulu City Lights. Probably was one of those two. Unless you consider C&K to be slack key - I kinda put them under Hawaiian Contemporary.
Odd though, that I have no recollection of actually buying those records. I used to spend a lot of time (and money) at the old Jelly's over on Piikoi. I probably got them there.
Aloha a hui hou,
Chris P. |
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Pauline Leland
`Olu`olu
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2002 : 6:21:09 PM
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I can remember it like it was yesterday; it almost was -- Ozzie Kotani's "Kani Ki Ho'alu."
Pauline |
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Fran Guidry
Ha`aha`a
USA
1579 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2002 : 7:31:20 PM
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I'm pretty new to slack key. About 3 years ago my wife dragged me to Honolulu, and when we got to the hotel and turned on the TV we found Keola doing "Wooden Boat" and I was hooked. That was the first slack key CD I ever bought, but I have a few more now .
Fran
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jlsulle
Lokahi
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2002 : 11:33:06 PM
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I can't remember the first because I have bought so many in the two years that I have been involved in slack key. It was probably Ozzie Kotani or Led Kaapana since they have always been my favorites.
Sulle
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2002 : 1:05:24 PM
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The first CD that Sarah and I got was Punahele (Uncle Ray of course). The song, "Punahele", hooked us instantly as it was so much like the baroque and other older classical music we were used too. There is the same kind of theme and variation development and lovely complexity, but much more soothing and less frantic than Euro/American Art Music. The second was Ozzie's Kani Ki Ho`alu and that just confirmed and solidified it for us. Again, the title song has a theme statement and then wonderful variations (amazing that they were improvised in the studio!). The last song, Mahinahina (also improvised in the studio!), is one of the lovliest impressionist pieces I think I have ever heard. Although the tab looks like it should be simple, since it is largely made up of parallel 6th variations, it is not, and I am too much of a novice to be able to play it. Oz told me, "That song is deep." And he is right.
Anyway, now we have so many CDs, tapes and vinyl LPs that there is hardly room for anymore in our house.
...Reid
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kihoalukid
Lokahi
USA
289 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2002 : 3:10:32 PM
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reid, where did you find the tab for that?
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kihoalu
Aloha
USA
14 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2002 : 3:31:01 PM
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The first slack key record I got was a tape that my Uncle Bill (William Namahoe) gave me. It is of a recording he made in 1949 (or maybe 1950) on a "78". The song is called "Music for Dreaming" and it is done in Taro Patch Tuning. There is a CD called "The History Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" by Cord International that has his song on it. They are searching for side "b", but no one seems to know where it is. In fact, Dancing Cat records approached him for the "lost song", but he didn't even have it. I have had some famous slack key players here in the islands ask me if I know where it is and, of course, I don't. He has since passed away.
Anyway, it is my Uncle Bill the inspired me to play slack key.
Kepa
Come visit us at HawaiiMusicians.com |
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2002 : 05:38:04 AM
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First song was Ku'u Lei Awapuhi by Keola Beamer-- First day of first visit to Hawaii, driving up to Lehaine, just past Mile 14 marker. Moved me so much I had to pull over. First album - Keola's Kolonahe. Blew me away. Still Does.
Raymond
San Jose
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Pops
Lokahi
USA
387 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2002 : 1:24:11 PM
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The Gabby Pahinui Band Vol. I. I got it in the mid-1970s I believe because Ry Cooder was on it and he was raving in the music magazines about Gabby, Atta, Sonny, etc. He was right!
Aloha,
Pops
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Russell Letson
`Olu`olu
USA
504 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2002 : 2:34:26 PM
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Another vote for the Gabby Band "vol. 1" LP, and for the same reason as Pops: Ry Cooder in the credits. Thereafter it was whatever showed up in the Hawaiian bins of the thrift shops and used-record places: "Atta," Keola's "In the Real Old Style," the Sons of Hawai`i's "An Island Heritage," the Waimea Festival double-LP set. It was really hit and miss before Dancing Cat, but now my library has around 100 slack key titles.
Years later, saw Ray and Elodia in Milwaukee (1987, when he got the National Endowment fellowship), and caught Led a couple years after when he substituted for Ray on a Steel String Masters tour (and played Chuck Berry on a slack-tuned Strat).
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BreezePlease
Akahai
Japan
86 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2002 : 01:12:55 AM
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Greetings!
My first post to this board. Am an ole-time local boy (now old man) now living in Japan, and this is going to date me... Guess the first "pure" slack-key album that I purchased was "Two Slack Key Guitars" (Gabby and Atta) on vinyl. Must have been late-60s, early-70s. Of course, always had a bunch of old "Sons" albums lying around the house...
Started fooling around with it a bit myself in the early-mid-70s, during the flare-up in interest in slack-key itself at the time, quit playing completely by the late-70s, and just started up again a few years ago. Now, play everything "slacked"; haven't touched haole-tuning for around 20 years, or so.
-breeze
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RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2002 : 01:43:00 AM
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That Atta/Gabby disk is incredible. I found a used copy about a year and a half into my playing slack key and it blew my mind.
Raymond
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duke
Lokahi
USA
163 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2002 : 04:14:55 AM
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I think the two-slack key guitars album was my first...when it actualy came out on vinyl. My uncle bought it, but I wore it out. There was one before that though... uhmmm, can't think of the title. Just bought both of them on CD. "Livin' on Easy?"
Duke
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jcfergus
Aloha
USA
30 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2002 : 3:08:06 PM
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A friend loaned John Keawe's album, Auhele, to me after his return from Hawaii. I had never heard slack key before and found it to be a very pleasant change from the other acoustic music I listened to. I think it grew on me slowly, as I assimilated the style. The next was the first Dancing Cat compilation, which provided a broader spectrum of styles and perhaps most importantly got me thinking about playing it. The information in the liner notes about tunings really tweaked my interest. I am now exploring not only Ki Ho'alu, but early slide styles as well as ukulele. I don't seem to be able to put it down, now. Guess I am hooked.
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Sarah
`Olu`olu
571 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2002 : 3:25:58 PM
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Two others of our very firsts were Leonard Kwan's album Ke'ala's Mele, and Moses Kahumoku's cd.
Thing was, we'd been to the islands for the first time, and came home saying to ourselves, gosh, we never heard any "real" music! So, I went to the music store in CT here, and Dancing Cat albums were the only Hawaiian stuff they had, besides Don Ho and Tiny Bubbles kine collections. (Categorized under "International Music", no less... :-o ) So I just picked several from reading the back cover... a kinda random start, because I didn't know what they sounded like.
On our next trip to the islands, we made a point of hunting down live music --- and so ever since.
-Sarah
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