BOB & LED KIKA KILA MEETS KI’HOALU

This all-instrumental album is the second in the Dancing Cat Records series of pure acoustic steel guitar and slack key duets. It brings together two masters of their crafts, Bob Brozman on acoustic steel and Ledward Kaapana on Slack Key from different cultures who share their aloha for vintage Hawaiian music in a free flowing session of great foot tapping music and good fun.

1. Maika'i No Kaua'i 4:13
2. Lei 'Awapuhi (My Yellow Ginger Lei) 4:42
3. Kolopa 3:39
4. Pa'ahana 3:13
5. 'Akaka Falls 5:52
6. Maile Lau Li'ili'i 4:26
7. Maui Chimes 4:51
8. Ua Like No A Like 4:14
9. E lili'u E 6:55
10. Hula Blues 3:13
11. Moana Chimes 6:58
12. Lepe 'Ula'ula 4:57
13. Ka Lei E 4:09
14. Fort Street 2:38
15. Tre Moe 4:30
16. Kalama'ula 4:57

Total Time 74:05

There are three distinct periods in the history of the acoustic Hawaiian steel guitar: the first began with the advent of the steel guitar in the late 1880s and continued until around 1915. First­generation players such as Ernest Kaai, William Ellis, Keoki Awai, Frank Ferera and July Paka took the United States by storm, integrating ragtime and other music of the era into traditional Hawaiian music. By 1916, more Hawaiian records were sold than any other type in the U.S. The resonator guitar, which provided more volume, was invented in the 1920s. This ushered in the National era, commonly referred to as the Golden Age of acoustic Hawaiian guitar, lasting through the late 1920s and early 1930s. Hawaiian steel guitar music flowered, and thousands of National guitars were sold. Artists such as Sol Ho’opi’i and Jim & Bob-The

Genial Hawaiians were popular during this era. The acoustic Hawaiian guitar fell out of favor by the mid­1930s, when players switched to the electric steel, leading into the third period, wherein the steel guitar became fully absorbed into and commercialized by American popular culture.

According to Bob Brozman, the National guitar represents a transition point between acoustic and electric instruments. “It has a much wider dynamic range than any acoustic or electric guitar. The difference between the softest and loudest strokes is really huge and there are so many subtle tonal things you can pull out of it.”

The National’s inventor, John Dopyera, operated a violin shop in Los Angeles. He already held several patents for musical instruments in 1926, when a vaudeville performer named George Beauchamp requested a new, louder version of the Hawaiian guitar. Dopyera crafted the body of the National from nickel. In step with the fashions of the day, he incorporated stylish Art Deco designs that give the instrument a unique period charm. For volume and tone he added a spun aluminum resonating cone. “His most famous models use three cones,” Bob explains. “The tricones are absolutely the finest sounding acoustic Hawaiian guitars ever made. The top Hawaiian recording artists of the 1920s and 30s used them. They were only made between 1929 and 1941 and are quite rare today.”

Besides Hawaiian musicians, many blues players bought National guitars. Bob, who first got into Nationals through the blues, bought every album he could find with a National on it. Around 1971, he happened upon a reissue of the legendary Sol Ho‘opi‘i. “That was it,” he says. “I started collecting Hawaiian 78s and learning songs. The music had the same emotional depth and validity as the blues. Sol Ho‘opi‘i, Benny Nawahi, The Kalama Quartet, Jim & Bob-The Genial Hawaiians, George Ku, and Sam Ku – those were my main Hawaiian guys.” One of Bob’s missions became to help Hawaiian music regain acceptance on the international scene, especially vintage Hawaiian music played on the National.

Both as an artist and as a scholar, Bob Brozman has earned the title King of the National Guitar. Born in New York in 1954, he began playing piano at age three and took up guitar at the age of six. He first heard a National when he was thirteen. “That pretty much destroyed any possibility of my ever being employable in any other kind of work,” he says.

He is perhaps the most visible and respected contemporary acoustic steel performer on the world circuit. Other Hawaiian steel masters, such as the late Barney Isaacs, have praised Bob’s playing. In addition to his own many recordings, he has produced five reissue albums of Hawaiian players from the 1920s and 30s. He has also published a copiously detailed, critically acclaimed book, THE HISTORY AND ARTISTRY OF NATIONAL RESONATOR INSTRUMENTS.

Starting in the early 1980s, Bob has recorded many albums on the Kicking Mule, Rounder, Skyranch/Virgin Europe, and other labels. They have received serious attention among slide guitar aficionados and brought Bob in touch with several of his main musical heroes.

“In 1984 I got a letter from the son of John Dopyera” Bob says. “It said, ‘My dad is a big fan of yours and you should really get in touch with him.’ I had no idea he was still alive! I visited him repeatedly in southern Oregon, conducted formal interviews and sat around playing music

with him. My experiences with old guys are pretty deep. It makes you think how many nursing homes are full of people with incredible stories.”

Bob’s most incredible story concerns Tau Moe (1908-2004) and his wife Rose, from Lä‘ie, who toured the world playing Hawaiian music for an amazing 54 years. “They left Hawai‘i in the 1920s,” Bob says, “and didn’t return until the 1970s.” In between they took Hawaiian music throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas. They recorded in Japan, China and India. They crossed deserts by camel, raised two children on the road, gave lessons and put on shows of all kinds. Their scrapbook has reviews and playbills in over fifty languages, and through it all Tau kept a record with his home movie camera and his incredible memory. It’s an amazing adventure, a microcosm of the entire century and almost totally unknown.”

In the 1970s as the Moes were retiring and returning home to Hawai‘i, they were also becoming Bob’s favorite artists. The only problem was that he didn’t know their identity. “In 1977 I’d found a 78 titled Maika‘i Nö Kaua‘i credited to Mme. Riviere’s Hawaiians in a San Francisco basement in and amongst a bunch of Mexican records. The first couple times I listened to it I couldn’t even get all the way through, it was just too much for me emotionally. I’d never heard singing like that. It was really in a class by itself.” Since the record didn’t list the artists, Bob had no idea who they were. Then, completely out of the blue, Tau Moe called him. “He’d heard I’d made some Hawaiian music on LP and he wanted to order some. As we talked he mentioned he played Hawaiian music on a National and he’d toured various places. I asked him about Maika‘i Nö Kaua‘i by Mme. Riviere’s Hawaiians and he said sure, we played on that. He brought Rose to the phone and they started singing it. I just about fell over.”

Bob flew to Hawai‘i and the Moes shared their whole amazing story with Bob. In 1989 they recorded the album HO‘OMANA‘O I NÄ MELE O KA WÄ U‘I (Rounder Records), which received the Library of Congress Select List Award and international rave reviews. Bob is also in production on a movie about the Moes and their remarkable adventure, with director Terry Zwigoff (LOUIE BLUIE, CRUMB). It is sure to be a Major contribution to the history of Hawaiian music and its wide but woefully under­documented dispersion throughout the world (it is currently on hold due to lack of funding)

Like the old timers who inspire him, Bob loves to perform live. In concert, he plays slide, mandolin, ‘ukulele and the standard acoustic guitar. He also enjoys dazzling his audience with acrobatics. He spins his guitar, plays behind his back, and carries on like a latter day Charley Patton. He is particularly popular in Europe and travels there often. Whether recording or touring, Bob freely mixes compatible musical genres. “Hawaiian music is a very big part of what I do but I’m using the instrument for all kinds of music,” he says. “If I had to put a label on what I do, I guess I’d say it’s a kind of music where the First World and Third World meet. When melody and harmony­based music meets rhythm­based music, then you get a most interesting music. For me there’s a continuous thread from Hawaiian music to blues to Caribbean music to African music. In fact, the same open tunings show up in all these cultures. It’s all aesthetically related.”

Bob says the sessions for KÏKÄ KILA MEETS KÏ HÖ‘ALU were fantastic, the result of two kindred spirits improvising together. “We barely even said hello before we started playing music and laughing. This stuff came out very fast. We just sat down and started playing and it sounded good, so that was it.” Bob adds that he found his session mate, Ledward Kaapana, extremely easy to play with. “We seem to talk musically back and forth very well, in terms of imitating each other’s phrases and supporting the other guy.

Playing on both a National steel and a Weissenborn koa wood guitar during these sessions, Bob feels the pieces on this album are quite beautiful. “I rarely get to play music this simple and sweet. It is reminiscent of the late first period, early second period of the steel guitar, before the jazz influences. It’s more in the style of what I played on the Tau Moe album. I’m mostly in demand for some of the more wild stuff I do, so for me this was a fabulous opportunity to play sweetly.”

The koa wood guitar Bob plays on this album was made by Herman Weissenborn, sometime between WWI and the early 1930s in Los Angeles, CA. Little is known about these guitars and they are impossibly rare today – the National’s popularity eclipsed them the same way the electric guitar eclipsed the National. The Weissenborn was the first guitar purposely dedicated to Hawaiian music, and well­known Hawaiian performers including Sol Ho‘opi‘i used them. The square­necked all­koa wood guitar can only be played with a slide flat on the lap, unlike some of the other acoustic steel guitars which can also be picked up and played in the “normal” manner.

Bob also recorded an album’s worth of solo steel guitar tracks during these sessions. George Winston, co­producer of KÏKÄ KILA MEETS KÏ HÖ‘ALU says, “I always particularly loved the acoustic steel and accompaniment guitar pure duet recordings of Jim & Bob-The Genial Hawaiians, from the 1920s and 30s. I always envisioned Bob Brozman doing a similar record but with the second guitarist playing Slack Key, instead of in Standard Tuning with a flatpick, and I knew that Led would be perfect for this.”

Ledward Kaapana numbers among the top instrumentalists, not only in Hawai‘i but on the world circuit as well. A master of guitar, ‘ukulele, bass, autoharp and steel guitar, he is also a fine singer in the traditional leo ki‘eki‘e (falsetto) style. Born in 1948, sixth of ten children, Led grew up in the remote village of Kalapana on the extreme south shore of the Big Island of Hawai‘i. “We didn’t have television or even much radio,” Led says. “We used to mostly just entertain ourselves. You could go to any house and everyone was playing music. Even today when I play kï hö‘alu (Slack Key guitar), I picture all the ‘ohanas (families) getting together and sharing their songs and their aloha.”

While still a teenager, in the mid­-1960s, Led began playing professionally on the Big Island with his mother, Tina Kaapana, with David Chun and Joe Keawe, and, most notably, with his uncle, the legendary Fred Punahoa. He relocated to O‘ahu several years later with his brother Nedward and his cousin Dennis Pavao, as the popular and prolifically­recorded trio Hui Ohana. After they disbanded, Led formed his own trio, I Kona. In 1989 J.W. Junker recommended Led for the prestigious Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife in Washington D.C. This exposure brought invitations to tour nationally under the auspices of Joe Wilson and the

National Council for the Traditional Arts. Led also realized a long­time dream to play in Nashville and jam with some of his favorite country guitarists, and in 1998 he recorded WALTZ OF THE WIND (Dancing Cat Records) in Nashville with guest artists, Jerry Douglas, Sonny Landreth, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Bob Brozman, George Winston and others.

Since then Led has continued to perform as a soloist, with I Kona, and in a number of all­star ad hoc ensembles. Like Bob, he also enjoys dazzling his audiences with guitar acrobatics. He has toured France with Cyril Pahinui and leo ki‘eki‘e (falsetto vocal) masters The Ho‘opi‘i Brothers. He began recording with Dancing Cat in 1991, and has recorded several albums worth of solo Slack Key for the label. His first, LED LIVE SOLO, was released in 1994, and his second, BLACK SAND, was released in 2000.

Ledward enjoyed recording wth Bob on this album. “Bob can really play,” he says. “We got along really well. From the start it just clicked, one, two takes at the most. Everything felt really good.” As Uncle Fred would say, “Jus’ press!” More extensive notes on Ledward Kaapana can be found on his Dancing Cat albums LED LIVE SOLO, and BLACK SAND.

ABOUT THE SONGS

1. Maika‘i Nö Kaua’i
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major “Taro Patch” Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D from the lowest pitched string to highest)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major “Taro Patch” Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

Credited to Hawaiian Congregational choir director Henry Waiau, this popular song dates from the early 20th century. Based on a 19th Century mele inoa (name chant) attributed to Kapa‘akea, King David Kaläkaua’s father, it celebrates the island of Kaua‘i. The text describes Hanalei, Nämolokama, Mount Wai‘ale‘ale and other natural wonders of the Garden Isle. Tau and Rose Moe recorded it in Japan in 1929 (reissued on VINTAGE HAWAIIAN MUSIC, THE GREAT SINGERS on Rounder Records) and again in 1989 for HO‘OMANA‘O I NÄ MELE O KA WÄ U‘I. (Rounder Records) “This is the Moe’s signature piece,” Bob says. “It’s the song I found in the basement in 1977 and that’s still the only known copy.” This version is a tribute to the Moes, and it has also become one of Bob’s signature pieces as one can immediately tell from Bob’s beautiful first verse.

2. Lei ‘Awapuhi (My Yellow Ginger Lei)
Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

Former Royal Hawaiian Band leader Mekia Kealakai composed Lei ‘Awapuhi during a train trip to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. It uses the image of a beautiful lei of ginger to discuss

a love securely bound. There is some particularly nice interweaving of parts on this rendition. “Like most of the session, this was improvised on the fly,” Bob says. “There was no rehearsal, just real careful listening – not just to notes but also rhythm and tone and timbre. Ledward really listened and I really listened and we took turns.” This version is based on the one, also in the G Major Tuning, by the great and very influential Slack Key guitarist Leonard Kwan (1931-2000), who first recorded My Yellow Ginger Lei on his album SLACK KEY, known in Slack Key circles as “The Red Album” (Tradewinds Records 103, now reissued along with all of Leonard’s early recordings on LEONARD KWAN–SLACK KEY MASTER–THE COMPLETE EARLY RECORDINGS, on Hana Ola Records).

3. Kolopä
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the C Wahine “Leonard’s C” Tuning (C­G­D­G­B­D), playing in the key of C, and capoed up seven frets to sound in the key of G.

Taken at a medium tempo, Kolopä refers to kicking and screaming like a child in a tantrum or a breakaway horse. Sol Ho‘opi‘i recorded it in 1933 on one of the first electric steel guitars.

In this song Bob and Led play in tunings that are in different key families, but Led is capoed up to the key of G to match Bob’s G Major Tuning. This is a common practice when two Slack Key guitarists play together, accomplished by tuning up or down, or capoing the guitar. It is also very common to have both guitarists play in different tunings in the same key.

4. Pa‘ahana
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

Tau and Rose Moe recorded Pa‘ahana as members of Mme. Riviere’s Hawaiians in 1929. Bob and Led give it a different sound. “What’s nice about this version,” Bob explains, “is the choppy duple approach. It’s divided into two, where hula often has a subtle division of three. Led plays very well in that duple and quadruple division of the beat.”

5. ‘Akaka Falls
Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D), playing in the key of F
Led: 6 string guitar in Standard Tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), playing in the key of F

Helen Kauinohea Lindsey Parker, The Lark of Waimea, composed this immortal classic to describe the Big Island waterfall where a rendezvous of two lovers took place. Frequently recorded, ‘Akaka Falls is one of the most familiar melodies in Hawaiian music, and this version features extensive improvisation. “Inside the big waltz is a smaller, faster one­two­three,” Bob says. “That’s done all the time in Caribbean and Mexican music. If you turn it into 6/8 and then make a triplet out of those two it creates this rolling thing that goes through it.”

6. Maile Lau Li‘ili’i
Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

Maile Lau Li‘ili‘i refers to the small leaf maile, a highly prized, subtly scented vine used in lei making. The song is attributed to Dave Burrows and his one­time featured vocalist Ray Kinney. Bob learned the song from The Kalama Quartet recording from 1928. “That’s why I gave it that kind of heavy approach,” he says, on this slow, almost bluesy update.

7. Maui Chimes
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

A jam session favorite among both steel and Slack Key guitarists of all levels of ability, Maui Chimes dates from the late 19th Century, when the steel guitar was in its youth. Appropriately, the melody is derived from a popular children’s song of the era, My Boat is Sailing. The tune is also known in Hawai‘i as Maui Nö Ka ‘Oi, with lyrics in praise of the Valley Isle written by Sam Kapu. Led recorded it previously with Hui ‘Ohana. “Our particular version is kind of a double time swing, which accommodates some fast rolls from both of us,” Bob says. This unique version has some jazzy and bluegrass licks.Bob uses a “hands­crossed” technique on the National where he crosses his right hand over the left, picking between the bar and the tuning pegs, for the unusual sliding chord sound.

8. Ua Like Nö A Like
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D), playing in the key of C
Led: 6 string guitar in the C Wahine “Leonard’s C” Tuning (C­G­D­G­B­D)

Alice Everett’s classic Ua Like Nö A Like poetically immortalizes a romantic meeting when the birds sang in the midnight hour and rain fell gently on a lehua bud. Published in 1882, the song was first made popular by the Royal Hawaiian Band, and has retained its popularity. Bob learned it from the late Tau Moe’s 1934 recording made in China. “That’s probably my all time favorite three minutes of music,” he says. “It’s just unbelievable. They pitched it up to A and Rose is just melodically singing in the highest pitch possible for a human voice. Tau is playing his National extremely emotionally. A beautiful record. There’s only one known copy.” Bob also recorded Ua Like Nö A Like with The Moes on their Rounder Records album THE TAU MOE FAMILY WITH BOB BROZMAN.

Led played here in the C Wahine Tuning (C-G-D-G-B-D), often called “Leonard’s C” since it was the favorite tuning of Leonard Kwan (1930–2000), one of the three most influential Slack Key guitarists in history (along with the late Philip “Gabby” Pahinui, 1921–1980, and the late Sonny Chillingworth, 1932–1994). Wahine is the term for a tuning containing a Major 7th

note, here the B note, which is hammered on to produce the tonic note C, one of the characteristic sounds of Wahine Tunings.

Note the use of the VII cord (the B flat cord here in the key of C), arranged her by Led, which seems to be a fairly universally used chord progression in songs inspired by the ocean, having been sometimes used in surf music instrumental songs of the early 1960s, songs such as The Lonely Surfer by Jack Nitzsche, and later in 1967 in the Theme from The Endless Summer, as well as in Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar, particularly in the arrangements and compositions of Keola Beamer, such as his versions of Sweet Singing Bamboo, and Sanoe, both on his album MOE’UHENA – TALES OF THE DREAM GUITAR (Dancing Cat Records), and on his version of Ia Oe I Ka La (Song for Kalakawa) with his brother Kapono on their album HAWAII THEN AND NOW (Music of Polynesia Records); and in some of the compositions and arrangements of the late great Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete (1923- 1987), such as Vira Mundo Penba, Inn of the Beginning, Xengo, Xengo Xererengo, Paradise Love Song (Black Mommy), Tio George, on his album OCEAN MEMORIES (Samba Moon Records).

9. Ë Lili‘u Ë

Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

According to Elbert and Mahoe, hula master Anton Ka‘ö‘ö created this mele inoa for Queen Lili‘uokalani in the late 19th Century under the title He Inoa No Lili‘u. He based the melody and most of the text on He Inoa No Kïna‘u, an earlier mele inoa honoring the infant son of Prince Ruth Ke‘elikölani. John Kaulia and Charles E. King are credited with the conversion to popular song.

10. Hula Blues
Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the Standard Tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), playing in the key of G

This well­ known melody sprung from a collaboration between composers of hapa­haole music Sonny Cunha and Johnny Noble, who was one of Territorial Hawai‘i’s most prominent band leaders and publishers. Hapa haole refers to songs with English lyrics and Hawaiian melodies; hapa means half, and haole means foreign.Noble debuted the song in 1920 with his famous dance band at the Moana Hotel. It quickly spread around the Islands and the world. Here Led plays in the key of G in the Standard Tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), instead of in the G Major Tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D) that most Slack Key guitarists play it in.

11. Moana Chimes

Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

A steel guitar standard, Moana Chimes is sometimes attributed to steel guitar wizard M.K. Moke, sometimes to Johnny Noble, and sometimes to both. In any case, it makes good use of the natural harmonics produced by gently touching the strings at the 12th, 7th, and 5th frets. Slack Key guitarists also enjoy creating this chiming ornament to add a bit of timbric contrast or to end a phrase.“Tau Moe learned it from M.K. Moke,” Bob says. “He took a lesson from him for twenty bucks back then. That’s like three hundred bucks today. Moke refused to teach him the song, but Tau asked him to play it for him, then ran home and started playing it.” ====(Double check guitar GW thinks it is on the Weissenborn)

12. Lepe ‘Ula‘ula

Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D), playing in the key of C
Led: 6 string guitar in the Standard Tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), playing in the key of C

Lepe ‘ula‘ula refers to the cockscomb of a rooster. The lyrics tell the story of a paniolo (cowboy) from Waimea with a winning lariat, using it the way that Cupid uses his bow and arrow. Attributed to Kaimanahila, Lepe ‘Ula‘ula was composed in the 1920s as a leo ki‘ek‘e (falsetto vocals) showcase.

13. Ka Lei Ë

Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)

Most commonly attributed to Johnny Noble, Ka Lei Ë is also known simply as Lei Ë. This rendition is unique in that Led is doing his Slack Key 16th note rolls and Bob tries to answer Led’s phrases, which he says has never to his knowledge been done before on record. “It’s one of my favorites on the album,” Bob says. .

14. Fort Street

Bob: National steel guitar in the G Major Tuning (D­G­D­G­B­D)
Led: 6 string guitar in the Standard Tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E), playing in the key of G

Bob learned this old rag­flavored classic, complete with ad hoc percussion, from a 1929 recording by Tau Moe. Danny Stewart is credited as the composer. “It’s actually a variation of the A part and B parts of George Botsford’s classic 1908 piece Black and White Rag,” he says. Note Led mimicking Bob’s triplets.

15. Tahiti Moe

Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the Mainland C Major Tuning (C-G-C-G-C-E), played in the keys of C and F
Led: 6 string guitar in the G Major Tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D), playing in the keys of G and C, and capoed up five frets to sound in the keys of C and F

This song is basically the Tahitian verson of `Opihi Moemoe, written by the great Hawaiian Slack Key guitarist Leonard Kwan (1931-2000), as interpreted by the Tahitian Slack Key guitarist Petiot Tauru, who Led met when playing there with the trio Hui ‘Ohana, with his brother Ned and his cousin Dennis Pavou. Led answers Bob’s triplets and Bob answers Led’s staccato phrases in this tour de force of spontaneous improvisation. Led plays in the G tuning capoed up five frets to sound in the key of C and Bob plays the Weissenborn in a Mainland C major tuning (C-G-C-G-C-E). [we did this for Lynn for Branson, Missouri printing]

16. Kalama‘ula

Bob: Weissenborn koa wood steel guitar in the Mainland C Major Tuning (C-G-C-G-C-E), played in the key of F
Led: 6 string guitar in the C Wahine “Leonard’s C” Tuning (C-G-C-D-B-D), and capoed up five frets to sound in the key F

Hanna Dudoit mele pana (place song) for a Hawaiian Homestead community on Moloka‘i is a popular favorite for leo ki‘eki‘e (falsetto) singers. “The Kalama Quartet did a beautiful version of it in 1929,” Bob says. “Also Lizzie Alohikea on Brunswick. I love that tune.” Bob again uses the crossed­hands technique for the unusual sliding chord sound. Here, as in Ua Like Nö A Like (song #8) is the use by Bob and Led of the evocative flat VII chord, here the E Flat Major

Liner notes by Jay W. Junker and Bob Brozman with technical assistance by George Winston.