Music

We have been enjoying the some of the local roots music--Hawaiian slack-key guitar, specifically. When the Hawaiians brought Mexican cowboys in to help them learn to handle cattle, they also learned to play their guitars. But when the cowboys left they didn't leave extra strings, so the Hawaiians loosened them to make them last and developed different tunings for their instruments. Slack-key has as many at 10 or 12 different tunings for different songs, and the guitar provides a bass line, a rhythm chording, and a melody line all at once. It is accompanied by beautiful singing. 

A good sample of slack-key music is on three Grammy winning compilation cds produced by George Kahumoku. We went to a concert with him and two others Saturday night. They are starting a tour of the mainland titled the Hawaii National Treasures tour. The concert was at Windward Community College, and at the entrance to the concert hall was a kitty-shiva.

Greg