On the Scene with musician Peter Apo

Peter Apo grew up in Makiki, graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute, and continued his education at the University of Oregon. He was playing Hawaiian music in Oregon with several like-minded friends when they discovered traditional American folk music. They formed a folk music group, the Travelers 3, and spent almost seven years playing college campuses coast to coast and recording for national record labels — one album for Capitol and three for Elektra.

Apo returned to Hawaii “for a week” in 1975 and decided to stay. He devoted most of the next 45 years to public service as a teacher, state legislator, government official and Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee but didn’t lose his interest in music. In 1988 he formed a duo, Apo & Beazley, with Del Beazley; their self-titled album won a Na Hoku Hanohano Award (most promising artist) in 1989.

In 1990, Apo released “Hawaiian Nation: A Call for Hawaiian Sovereignty,” a collection of songs and narrative readings on the subject of Hawaiian nationhood. It was a milestone in local music.

Apo, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on Thursday, recently previewed the music of his next project with the release of a Peter Apo Band download-only single, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” with special guest Robi Kahakalau.

Congratulations on your birthday and on the new single. Why that song? Why now?

I’m at a point now where I’m done with being a government employee and I’ve been rethinking through my life. I got some really wise advice: “Whatever you do, make sure you have a passion for it.” What pops into my mind? Music! I decided to get (back) into music. Here I am, starting a music company, I’m looking at everything going on nationally, and a Bob Dylan song is like deja vu. “Blowin’ in the Wind” is on the top of my bucket list going back to my future.

Were people on the mainland surprised in the 1960s to find a Hawaiian playing European-American folk music?

Yes. They were surprised, and I think pleasantly surprised.

When you released “Hawaiian Nation: A Call for Hawaiian Sovereignty” it wasn’t fashionable to be a Hawaiian nationalist. You were a successful member of Hawaii’s political power structure. Why did you do it?

I was disappointed that there wasn’t more songwriting being done in Hawaii to address issues that were specific to ­Hawaii and Hawaiians — the denial of self-determination for native people. That’s what got me started.

You included two songs — “O Akua” and “My Hawaiian Queen” — written by John Kalani Lincoln, a Native Hawaiian that the government called a “career criminal.” Lincoln was doing life without parole — the state sent him to Leavenworth — and no one knew then that his conviction would eventually be thrown out. Why did you spotlight the music of a man who was considered bad news by the political establishment?

I thought he was a victim of transgenerational trauma, and while I don’t apologize for what he was doing, I think he was expressing himself in a good way with songs about sovereignty and the injustices that had been done. They fit perfectly to the folk scene and songs of protest, and I respected him for it.

You met your wife when you were a state representative and she was lobbying to save the Waikiki Natatorium. More than 30 years later the natatorium is still there but it hasn’t been saved. Why should we care?

It surprises me that we in Hawaii are not as respectful as we should be about our historic places. The Natatorium, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Moana are the only three sites left in Waikiki from the era (when they were built) and they are a continuum of community memory. Before you know where you want to go you have to know where you’ve been.

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SONG REVIEW

Hawaiian lyrics add to folk classic

“Blowin’ in the Wind”

The Peter Apo Band & Sistah Robi

Peter Apo Music

Peter Apo made local music history in 1990 when he released “Hawaiian Nation: A Call For Hawaiian Sovereignty,” a full-length album of songs and narrative readings on the subject of Hawaiian nationalism. Apo was a state representative in 1990, but years earlier he had been singing haole (non-Hawaiian) folk songs as a working musician across the U.S. mainland. Apo’s new download-only single brings together both sides of his repertoire.

The classic protest song is a 1962 composition by Bob Dylan — a Billboard Top 10 hit for Peter Paul & Mary in 1963 and for Stevie Wonder in 1966. The tune was also a standard for Joan Baez. Apo adds ­Hawaiian lyrics, steel guitar and Hawaiian percussion, along with his band’s guitars, and bass and drums.

Gordon Freitas (guitar), Jim Christian (bass), and Pete Moe (drums) are the other members of the band. “Sistah Robi” Kahakalau adds to the vocal harmonies.

The questions posed by the lyrics are as relevant today as they were when Dylan wrote them.

Visit peterapomusic.com.