Ki Ho`alu

The sound of slack key music is the back drop to all of our Hawai`i adventures. Because of the degrading hell that is travel in empire America no one brought guitars on this trip, so we feared that our music would be limited to CDs. A bit of a bummer for the aspiring slack key guitarists among us. But this house always seems to have what you need. Upstairs in the solarium were two guitars sitting behind the piano, keyboard, banjo, and what appears to be either a large ukulele or a small lute.

One guitar was a small travel model, the other a rather sad old classical with a couple of broken strings. We cleaned them up and attempted to tune them (or at least the one that had 6 strings), but the strings were rather old and didn't want to come into tune. A trip to the music store was obviously in order. Off we (Sue, Clay, Bruce,and I) went up Kapahulu to Good Guys music. I looked at strings while Clay was having a conversation with the fellow behind the counter. When I glanced up a little while later, cash was changing hands and suddenly Clay was holding a Martin. It was rather beat up and missing a peg, but we had acquired a beach guitar!

Back at the house Clay strung his new guitar while I put a new set of nylon strings on the classical. Mine still wouldn't hold a tuning, but his did and soon kani ki ho`alu was ringing through the house.

In a fitting end to the day, we all met down at the Rum Fire lounge in the Sheraton to celebrate Dan's arrival on island. Makana was playing. This kid has really come a long way since we saw him as Matt Swalinkavich in a little bar in Manoa. Back then he was already a phenomenal guitarist, but he has since matured his presentation and has a great stage presence. He is the future of Slack Key.