Personnel: Martin Pahinui (vocal, acoustic guitar); George Kuo (double-neck guitar); Bobby Ingano (steel guitar); George Winston (piano); Aaron Mahi (bass, background vocals).
Recorded at Audio Resource, Honolulu, Hawaii on July 16-19, 2002.
Personnel: Martin Pahinui (vocals, ukulele); Bobby Ingano (steel guitar); George Winston (piano); George Kuo, Aaron Mahi (background vocals).
Let's hear it for Hawaiian slack key music. An indigenous folk style played on acoustic guitar, slack key involves alternate tuning (in which the strings are loosened or "slacked"), to create a lingering resonance behind the plucked melody. Slides, hammer-ons, and harmonics are often involved in slack-key playing, and the result is a sweet, soulful sound that mimics the singing that sometimes accompanies the guitar. This beautiful slack key guitar/vocal combo is showcased on HO'OLOHE, the debut by Martin Pahinui, a prominent figure in the Hawaiian slack key tradition.
Though vocals don't always accompany slack key playing, Pahinui's rich voice, which ranges from mournful to jubilant, and incorporates a very endearing yodel, is the center of HO'OLOHE. Guitarists George Kuo and Bobby Ingano provide the slinky, six-string trickery, while Pahinui's croon evokes a paradise of gorgeous beaches, swaying palm trees, and mist-swept volcano peaks. This is warm, resonant, deeply pleasurable folk music imbued with the unmistakably distinctive flavor of the islands.
