“Priest of the Land” — Kahumoku
(Kealia Farms Record Company)
George Kahumoku Jr. — slack key master, Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner, three-time Grammy Award-winning record producer — presents a retrospective on his work as a songwriter with this recently released CD. The songs cover almost 40 years. The lyrics — most of them written by Kahumoku, a few co-written with Kalani Meinecke — express his feelings for family members and close friends, tell the importance of special places, and share the magic of unexpected moments.
Kahumoku sings with the slight quaver in his voice that links modern Hawaiian music with ancient chant. His playing — he uses a 12-string guitar rather than the standard 6-string guitar — epitomizes the nahenahe (sweet, melodious) ideal of traditional slack key as well.
The biggest benefit of traditional “physical” CDs over download-only projects is the opportunity they give recording artists and their producers to properly document the music. Kahumoku does that with a beautifully illustrated 32-page booklet that contains the lyrics, English translations and background information. Including this information allows people who aren’t fluent in Hawaiian to grasp the basic subtleties of “Ho‘oipo Kamaha‘o” (“Wonderful Wooing”) and understand how an eel (puhi) fits into the story.
Everyone interested in slack key will appreciate Kahumoku’s thoroughness in listing the slack key tunings he uses on each song. As a bonus he reveals the origin of his family name as a creation of the Great Mahele in 1848.
Visit kahumoku.com.
“Till the End” — Karlie G
(Karlie Goya)
Until the rise of the internet, would-be musical stars paid their dues by playing bars or high school dances or wherever, until they got it together. They then looked for a record label willing to record them. YouTube changed all that. Teenage recording artist Karlie Goya — Karlie G is her stage name — is doing things the modern way.
Karlie picked up the ukulele three years ago. She posted clips on YouTube and explored how she could use the ukulele to play American pop, R&B and J-pop tunes. Last year she started writing her own. The next step was a complete, professionally produced recording.
A Kickstarter campaign raised the funds, multitalented producer/musician Imua Garza provided the technical skills, and Karlie did the rest. Regardless of whether she wins “most promising artist” at the 2017 Hoku Awards, her four-song CD is a promising debut.
Karlie’s voice is captivating. Her lyrics describe emotional situations teens and adults of all ages can relate to. Her arrangements give the songs a mainstream pop sound worthy of national radio play.
Visit karliegoya.com.
