Kauai Folk Festival to debut in September

Back in the late 1800s, King David Kalakaua supported, sponsored and exported Hawaiian musicians to create connections between traditional Hawaiian music and music from other parts of the world.

A new two-day celebration, the Kauai Folk Festival, Sept. 28-29, aims to explore the influences traditional Hawaiian music has had on traditional folk music in the past and now.

The festival is the brainchild of Matt Morelock, a Tennessee expat and multi-instrumentalist best known as a banjo player. It is an outgrowth of two other popular Kauai events: the Kauai Fiddlers Convention and the Kauai Old Time Gathering.

While Morelock doesn’t know how much demand to expect for the inaugural festival, he said it should help draw at least some tourists to the island in what is traditionally a softer time for Hawaii’s visitor industry.

Morelock, who was raised on bluegrass and country music and previously produced a live-performance radio show called the “WDVX Blue Plate Special” in Knoxville, Tenn., has been trying to grow Kauai’s folk music scene since he and his wife, Hollis Church, moved to Moloaa on the northeastern part of the island eight years ago.

“I discovered when I got here that there was robust support for Hawaiian music, and rightly so, but the connection between Hawaiian traditional music and traditional music from other parts for the world had not been fully explored,” said Morelock, who is director of the folk festival. “I began exploring on my own and found an amazing array of connections between Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian traditional music.”

While Morelock said it’s commonly known Hawaiians invented Hawaiian-style steel guitar playing, he’s identified other connections, including Hawaiian­-style vocal harmonies and yodeling.

“A diversity of subjects for songwriting and rhythms and pulses for American folk music didn’t exist until Hawaiian musicians started traveling throughout the world in the late royal era under King David Kalakaua,” Morelock said. “Hawaiian musicians of that era were rock stars. They performed at expositions, royal palaces, world fairs and for heads of state. They were part of Hawaii’s forgotten past.”

That history and more will be explored during the two-day festival, which will be held at the historic Grove Farm Museum, where continuous live music will be performed on five stages by 34 acts. Folk music notables Taj Mahal, Peter Rowan and Tim O’Brien will headline the event.

Other popular artists on the bill are Caroline Pond and the Rainbow Stringband, Uncle Shuffelo and His Haint Hollow Hootenanny, the Pine Hearts, SLO County Stumblers, Caleb Klauder, Reeb Willms, Austin Derryberry and Jonny Fritz, and Hawaii performers Norman de Costa, Puka Asing, Kirby Keough and Wally Rita’s Los Kauaianos. An eclectic mix of acts such as local blues artist Vic the Barber, African rumba band Boma Bango and French folk duo the Montvales round out the festival lineup.

“Folk festivals include literally every genre of music from traditional square dance to hip-hop to Central African drumming to good old rock ’n’ roll. Folk music is music made by folks, and that’s everybody,” Morelock said. “Here in Hawaii we have the added interest of the yet-to-be-fully-understood and the largely hidden influence that Hawaiian music has had on music worldwide.”

The festival format includes workshops, with musicians hosting guitar, fiddle, banjo, ukulele and mandolin lessons, and instruction in hula, square dance, swing and two-step. Voice teachers will educate participants on harmony singing, ballads and Hawaiian song. Attendees are encouraged to bring instruments, but loaners will be available.

“If attendees come away with a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian musical styles, I will feel that I have done a good job. But I’ll be happy if if they just show up and enjoy good food and good music at a purely visceral level,” Morelock said.

One-day passes are $60, two-day passes are $100 and two-day VIP passes are $300. For more information, visit kauaifolkfestival.com.