If you’ve been to Hawaii, you know that it really does feel like paradise. You never need a sweater, the ocean is always near and the volcanic landscape is otherworldly. I just spent two weeks there, and while enjoying the stunning beauty I also realized how much serious musical territory Hawaii claims, from creating steel and slack-key guitar styles to inventing the ukulele.
The short version of how all that happened is immigration. Hawaii is virtually alone, right in the middle of the Pacific, so the islands were a natural stop for ships, leaving immigrants from all over the world (and their musical styles). In Hawaii, they morphed into something uniquely Hawaiian.
Sugarcane and the sweet ukulele
The roots of the ukulele can be traced to Portuguese immigrants working Hawaiian sugarcane fields. They brought the cavaquinho, a small stringed instrument from the guitar family. In Hawaii, the instrument morphed and the ukulele was born.
The best-selling Hawaiian musician played the ukulele and remains a total phemon. Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over the Rainbow” has been used in multiple films and commercials, and people still can't seem to get enough of his music. The song has sold over three million copies in the U.S. and been on the Billboard charts for most the past decade.
Jake Shimabukuro is another virtuosic ukulele player, born in Honolulu. Watch his ukulele weep in a cover that would make George Harrison proud. (Skip to the three-minute mark if you really want to blow your mind.)
Those songs were both covers. Here’s a Hawaiian song called “He’eia,” performed by Carl Ray VillaVerde.
Slack-key loosens the guitar
The slack-key style of playing the guitar refers to "loosening the tuning" of some of the strings so that all the strings on the guitar form one chord, creating an open tuning. The story goes that Mexican cowboys brought this style with them to Hawaii in the 19th century and it evolved from there.
Ledward Kaapana is one of the best slack-key guitar players. Watch his fingers fly while he plays this song, even using his arm as a slide at some points.
Here is Kaapana again, this time with two other slack-key legends, Dennis Kamakahi and Nathan Aweau. Kamakahi is in the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and Aweau has won numerous awards himself. Together, the three musicians went on tour, calling themselves the Hawaiian Legends. This song, “I Kona,” also features traditional dancing.
Bob Brozman is one of the world’s greatest slide guitarists. He also teamed up with Kaapana, recording a beautiful song called “Ua Like.”
A kid, railway tracks and the steel guitar
The steel guitar is also a style that developed in Hawaii. (The name comes from sliding a steel bar along the strings of the guitar.) The legend is that a kid walking home from school picked up a piece of steel by the railroad tracks and liked the sound as he slid it along the strings of his guitar.
Jerry Byrd was probably the best ever steel guitar player. He was the first steel guitarist voted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. He fell in love with the steel guitar at 13, when he saw a band of touring musicians from Hawaii. Born in Ohio, Byrd played in Nashville with everyone from Hank Williams to Dolly Parton. He later gave lessons to Jerry Garcia and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Byrd moved to Hawaii in the 1970s and helped revive the popularity of steel guitar there.
Here is Byrd, playing “Beautiful Kahana” with some of Hawaii’s finest musicians.
Listen to the steel guitar that Byrd adds to the Hank Williams classic, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” They recorded this in 1949. (Byrd has a sweet solo at the one-minute mark.)
And what better excuse to hear a Dolly Parton song. Here she is in Hawaii, with Byrd.
What's your favourite Hawaiian song or Hawaiian-influenced song? Leave your comments below.
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