From Hawaiian to rock, ‘Ripe’ displays artist’s wide repertoire

"Ripe"
Makana
(Makana Music)

The multitalented Makana has always defied easy categorization. Hawaii first knew him as a young slack-key guitarist, a student and protege of Sonny Chillingworth, and so there were certainly expectations that when Makana graduated from high school and was free to play music full time, he would define himself solely as a practitioner and promoter of traditional Hawaiian slack key. By that time, however, Makana was already demonstrating his command of other genres of contemporary music.

Makana waited a year or two after he got out of high school, until 1999, to record his first album. When he did, it was to show how slack-key techniques could be applied to various styles of mainstream American folk and soft-rock music as well as to Hawaiian melodies. He has continued that process of musical exploration and the refinement of his approach to ki hoalu (slack key) with the albums that followed.

"Ripe," released last week, contains several songs that collectively suggest the breadth of his musical horizons. One of them is "Hi‘ilawe," one of the best-known Hawaiian songs of the 19th century. Makana presents it here without any suggestion of traditional percussion, but with a memorable vocal performance that includes touches of Hawaiian falsetto.

"Hi‘ilawe" has been recorded countless times since the 1940s; Makana’s version is a worthy addition to the list.

A far different musical frontier is represented by "We Are the Many." Makana wrote it several years ago when the Occupy Wall Street movement was rising in New York and represented a valid call for social change. Makana’s straightforward call for political activism and the return of power to the people puts him in distinguished company: Bob Dylan in the ’60s and Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie before that. Occupy is gone as a potent political movement, but the issues Makana addresses with his lyrics are still relevant.

The breadth of Makana’s repertoire is also seen in his remakes of rock band material. He pays homage to Led Zeppelin with a blues-rock take on "Going to California" that is reminiscent of the original, and then goes way out beyond a conventional remake with an imaginative acoustic arrangement of "Bizarre Love Triangle" — a 1986 dance club hit by New Order.

Want an instrumental? Makana partners with slack-key/classical/jazz guitarist Jeff Peterson on "Slackmenco." The title describes the general sound and premise of the song. Makana plays ukulele and the lead part on steel-string acoustic guitar; Peterson does the lead work on nylon-string acoustic guitar and plays rhythm on guitars of both types.

Makana’s talents as a lyricist and poet are evident elsewhere. Elements of kaona (hidden meaning) percolate through "Nectarine," a song that could be taken as being about a ripe fruit — at least for the first two verses. "Manic," the confessions of a guy who describes himself as "a bipolar manic/obsessive romantic/who just can’t seem to live a normal life" is rich with vivid lyric images as well.

Guests — bass, percussion, piano, a brass section and vocalist Rocky Brown — are used sparingly but with uniformly good results.

The CD comes with a poster of the cover art. On the back of the poster are the composer and performance credits, publishing information and song lyrics for folks who enjoy reading poetry as well as listening to it.

"Ripe" is available at www.makanamusic.com.

"Nectarine"