Aloha mai!The downtown Ho'olaule'a, which I recommended last time, was fabulous fun! I especially enjoyed seeing Wille and Amy live. Those of you who have seen them know the beauty of their voices, the snappiness of their patter, and the way they move the audience -- physically and emotionally. One of the loudest rounds of applause came from Amy's announcement that her new CD should be out this year, and that Willie had just finished, that day, a new Christmas CD. Looks like some super choices for holiday gift-giving!
Next months marks the fourth full year that I have been presenting Hawaiian music info to Hawaiian music fans. In November, I'll tell you why I started. For now, I'll just mention that the CD review portion for many of those back issues is available on nahenahe.net at my main page, http://www.nahenahe.net/susanmusic, thanks to the kindness of Keola Donaghy, webmaster of nahenahe.net and all-around nice guy.
That's all for now!
Recordings
Weldon Kekauoha, Hawaiian Man ((A Guava Ding Thing GDT 1230) This is a pleasant, more than adequate CD by Weldon Kekauoha. It's a sampler CD, with its Jawaiian-flavored title track, the chalangalang style "Puikeona," the steel on "Leimomi" and "Kona Kai," and the falsetto efforts on "Kahukiaialo." My favorite was the lilting "medley, "Wai'alae/Ahe Lau Makani." As a change of pace, Weldon throws in a couple of R&B classics, "Everybody Plays the Fool" and "Oh, Girl," but they're lifeless renditions. He's much better sticking to his local roots.
Darrell Labrado, Shaka the Moon (Monkeypod Records MPCDC2) Darrell is the 14 year old boy from Moloka'i who was featyred on the Moloka'i sampler CD earlier this year, Moloka'i Now. If you can get past the prepubescent vocals, this is actually an interesting CD. It seems as though a large part of the musical community associated with Moloka'i pulled together for this one, including Isaac Kamaile, Melveen Leed, and Sterling Kalua. Some of the songs don't quite gel -- like Melveen ripping one end of a gospel duet while Darrell sings like a Sunday school chorister. However, in songs that match his experience level, Darrell can deliver, such as on the Motown tune "I'll Be There," "Moloka'i Slide," and the Kalua/Pileggi original "Da Kine." The lad's got the chops, but not the delivery on the more complex songs. He need some time for his voice to grow -- to at least change -- and some more life experience to better sell the songs. He's got considerable promise that he needs time to grow into.
See you in mid-October- a hui hou!--Susan
susanj@lava.net
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