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"Mele‘uhane"
Keikilani Lindsey
(Tiki Time Productions)
Singer-songwriter Keikilani Lindsey upholds tradition while sharing new ideas with "Mele‘uhane." An opening chant, performed by Puni Patrick and accompanied by "new age-y" electronic music, defines one musical boundary. "Mahana," a place song about a Big Island beach where the sand consists of minute bits of volcanic glass, establishes another. On the latter, Lindsey uses steel guitar, piano, a briskly strummed ukulele and a lilting pop rhythm to evoke the feel of the hapa-haole music of the first half of the 20th century.
In between those two baselines Lindsey and co-producer Ron Pendragon neatly blend the traditional with the contemporary. The lyrics are almost entirely in Hawaiian, and the core instruments are guitar and bass but from time to time they have musicians playing electric guitar, synthesizers and some non-Hawaiian percussion instruments. Lindsey writes in the liner notes about the challenge posed to Hawaiian artists from within the Hawaiian community "to evolve and expand upon their native intuition and inspirations." These songs are his response.
Lindsey co-wrote 11 of them. He explains in the liner notes that one song, "‘Olu o Pu‘ulani (Peace on Heaven’s Hill)," which was written by Helen Lindsey Parker, was his grandfather’s "heart song" and describes a tragedy that befell members of a previous generation. He sings it in a sweet and poignant falsetto.
Lindsey and Pendragon complete "Mele‘uhane" with two booklets of song lyrics, translations and background information — documentation that is especially important when introducing new Hawaiian songs. Lindsey also shares his thoughts on the place of Hawaiian music in the larger world and his response to the challenge to "holo mua (forge ahead)."
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