Presented for your consideration next time you find yourself browsing for Hawaiian music, either online or in-store (what's that?).
These would be the Merrie Monarchs. It's actually the latest iteration of a glee club formed in 1976 in conjunction with the Huilhe'e Palace Band.
You want the old time sound, give 'em a listen.
For true in the flesh performances, check 'em out during one of their monthly concerts at the palace in Kailua-Kona town. Good to see the palace on the road to recovery following the quake.
Browsing in a second hand store, we came upon a well decorated sleeve covering some ancient vinyl touting the Music of Hawaii.
The Halo-produced volume 5022 was performed by the National Hawaiian Orchestra by Record Corporation of America, copyright 1957 and made in the U.S.A. (remember when that meant it was being produced by private enterprise by workers in the United States of America a guarantee of quality?)
You don't?
Obviously, you're not old enough. Okay, let's put it in terms you can understand -- it was the 50s equivalent of today's "Made in China."
We confess to not knowing much more about the music on this album, except that, in the process of "digitizing", we learned that they weren't using much ukulele or slack key back then, and only a hint of pedal steel. And, for some reason, every song back then had to start out with a xylophone.
That's about all we know, as a search of the title on the WWW didn't turn up any information about the disc that we didn't already know by reading the cover.
The back of the cover is a listing of some other HALO HI-FI 12-inch long-playing records ranging from such popular music as THREE GREAT JAZZ GROUPS - Art Van Damme, Slam Stewart, Herman Chittison Trio to CONCERTOS TSCHAIKOWSKY'S VIOLINE CONCERTO and that the cover was printed in U.S.A. and is copyright '57 Union CIty, New Jersey.
The cover contains the above interesting, yet unsigned, half a painting of the fair maiden enjoying a tall cool one on the beach to go with her something sandwich. So, if anyone can shed any light about the production, that would be great.
Otherwise, a visit to OurKonaCondo.com might be in order, as there is a healthy collection of DVDs and VHS tapes containing some music from these lovely isles.
So, here we are back on the mainland and daydreaming about what to check out next time we're on the island.
C31 is open in August, which makes it tempting to jet out for the "Kona Style" Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival.
It's set for August 31, 2008, 1-6 p.m. at Sheraton Keahou Bay Resort, but that's as much as we can tell by visiting the festival site at slackkeyfestival.com.
Last year's event was free and held outdoors on the Hawaii Lawn, paying tribute to one of the style's most well known and beloved practitioners, the late Gabby Pahinui.
No clue what this year's fest holds, but here's contact info if you want to learn more:
