“CUT THE DEAD SOME SLACK”

Stephen Inglis (Rhythm & Roots)

Until now Stephen Inglis has had the most visibility for his work as a musical associate of slack key master Dennis Kamakahi. “Waimaka Helelei,” a collection of songs Inglis and Kamakahi recorded to honor the Hansen’s disease patients who were exiled to Kalaupapa, received the Na Hoku Hanohano Award for Best Slack Key Album in 2012. Even so, Inglis has always had his own projects going, and he hasn’t been idle since Kamakahi’s death in 2014.

With this recently released double-CD, Inglis is stretching out in an entirely different musical direction. The title of the album and the cover art showing a guitar-playing skeleton riding a skeletal horse in an expansive lush meadow in front of Diamond Head provide hints of what lies within.

“The Dead” are the famed Grateful Dead of San Francisco, the group that is remembered for its unique ability to blend a dizzying mix of musical influences — rock, bluegrass, blues, country, “experimental music,” folk and psychedelia — and for entertaining its hordes of hard-core fans (Deadheads) with lengthy instrumental jams. The Dead were also famous for actually encouraging Deadheads to make personal bootleg recordings at their concerts and to trade them with other ‘Heads.

“Slack” refers to Inglis exploring how Dead classics might sound when approached by a practitioner of Hawaiian slack key. It is almost a one-man project. Inglis plays slack key, “lead guitar” and guitarlele (an acoustic guitar/ukulele hybrid that’s tuned like a guitar). He also sings almost all the vocal parts; David Gans adds harmonies.

In keeping with the Dead tradition of long concerts, there is too much music here for a single CD. On the first disc are 10 of Inglis’ favorites, including a 10-minute rendition of “Days Between.” On the second are three more songs studio recordings, and then three “live” recordings by the Stephen Inglis Project featuring David Gans.

The “live” recordings bring the album full circle as Inglis and Gans play an even longer version of “Days Between,” and we hear Inglis tell the audience that he’s working on an album of songs by the Grateful Dead.

Presented with a liner notes booklet that explains the concept and shares the history of the precedent-setting project, “Cut The Dead Some Slack” could easily make Inglis a Hoku Award-winner in his own right.

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