The Time Between

I’ve lived in or commuted to Hawaii for over 4 years. A lovely place. A gentle place (unless you cut someone off on the freeway). With unbelievable weather and nature. It’s also got a very large music scene. Unfortunately a lot of it is pretty terrible - fake reggae - Jawaiian – music is everywhere (just because it’s an island why does it have to pretend to be Jamaica?), bad 70’s soft rock ensembles litter the place. The problem is this hides the brilliant, individual, local music that really is different and sometimes quite amazing. The easy way in is Chicken Skin Music – the Ry Cooder album – where he brought together the guy seen as the father of this music (Gabby Pahinui) – even though it all started before Gabby - with his usual tasteful playing (Ry is Zelig like – he’s turns up on all this “world music” but just seems to have been there all the time). The interesting thing about real Hawaiian music is the tuning – slack key – where certain strings are loosened and the guitar is played in an open tuning. There’s tons of these tunings and people are quite proprietary around some of them – each one has its own particular sound. The current master of this is Ledward Kaapana. The guy is just unbelievably brilliant. The only other player I can compare him to is Richard Thompson. Totally different but both masters. Ledward has played with Ry – on Chavez Ravine for one (what a great, great album). He’s played with Chet Atkins too, and everyone else but he hangs in Hawaii. You can see the guy for free (how is that possible?) at a bar every Sunday night. He plays around the island a bit (doesn’t overdo it) but doesn’t get the support one of the worlds great players should get. In fact it’s been shocking how small the crowds are for his shows. His albums, particularly his live albums are great – pretty mellow – but a masterclass in real Hawaiian music. This stuff won’t disappear – thank goodness – as there’s too many people still playing it (obviously not paying to see it tho) but if you’re in the islands make sure you go check out a living legend, a guy who owns this space. You won’t regret it.