After living here for six years, I finally got to the annual Big Island Slack Key Guitar Festival this year. (There are some advantages to being newly single...) Wow! Twelve performers, six hours of wonderful music. For those who don't know about slack key, I'll quote a little from the program.

"Hawaiian slack key guitar (ki ho'alu) is one of the world's great acoustic guitar traditions but it is one of the least known because of Hawaii's isolation. Ki ho'alu, which literally means "loosen the key", is the Hawaiian name for this solo finger-picked style. In this tradition, the strings or "keys" [i.e., pegs] are "slacked" to produce many beautiful tunings, almost always based on a major tonality. Each tuning produces a characteristic resonance behind the melody, and each has its own characteristic color and flavor, like a beautiful basket of fruit.
"Many Hawaiian songs and slack key guitar pieces reflect themes, such as stories of the past and present, and the aloha for loved ones. This, in addition to the tropical surroundings of Hawaii, with its oceans, volcanoes, mountains, waterfalls, forests, plants and animals, provides the deepest source of inspiration for Hawaiian music... Like blues guitar, the slack key tradition is very flexible and can have great emotional depth."

Players like Ledward Kaapana, John Keawe, Dennis and David Kamakahi...what a feast. And it's extra special being on this island, because that's where the Hawaiian guitar and ukulele tradition started, from the Spanish cowboys who came to work the cattle ranches here in the 1830s. Sadly, I was on call and had to go to the hospital after about 3 hours, but it was wonderful while I could stay. And the whole thing cost...five bucks! Best deal in the islands by far. It's got me pulling out my Ozzie Kotani book and trying Taro Patch tuning again, and also looking for an ukulele teacher. There's a whole lot more to Hawaiian music than Ukulele Lady and Aloha Oe.

If you're interested in hearing this music, check out the CD collection put together by George Winston on Dancing Cat Records. So...if any 'Catters want to plan a vacation for this time next year, let me know. A hui hou!

Aloha,
Mark