Live ʻUkulele Article on Hawaiian ʻUkulele

New article is up and live on the Live ʻUkulele website. Link to it here: https://liveukulele.com/lessons/hawaiian-ukulele/

New Article for Live ʻUkulele.com

I recently started writing for the ʻukulele blog http://www.LiveUkulele.com run by my friend and occasional music making partner Brad Bordessa. My first post is about getting keiki started on the ʻukulele. You can link to it here: https://liveukulele.com/lessons/beginner/ukulele-for-kids/ This whole website is an amazing resource for the ʻukulele and ʻukulele music. I have some more articles …

Song for Waimea, A Song for You

A lot of songs just start with an idea. The composition "Song for Waimea", which is the title track from my album of original song about the people and places around Waimea, started with a simple story that someone shared with me. They were returning back to Waimea for the first time after over 20 …

Update, Welcome Back, Nice to See You Again

I'll admit it, I definitely underestimated the toll that an album release can have on one's creative energies. This was rather unexpected as I was full steam ahead this past June when my new album of original music "Song for Waimea" was released to the public. But as a small independent musician, managing the album …

Got Palaka?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfs7yUOXHVU "Got Palaka?" is the second single from my new album 'Song for Waimea'. This song was inspired by the ubiquitous palaka shirt that is so closely associated with Waimea, the paniolo, and upcountry living in general. It is what I like to call "the real Hawaiian shirt". The palaka shirt has an interesting history …

‘Song for Waimea’: Origin Story

Everything needs an origin story. While I could say the origin story for my new album 'Song for Waimea' first began when I moved here when I was five years old, it truly started to take shape after a curious creative predicament I found myself in about two summers ago. At that time I had …

My Song of Waimea

Upon arriving in Hawai’i as a young child, my family first lived on the beach at ‘Ohai’ula on the shores of Kawaihae which borders the ahupua’a of ‘Ouil, where Waimea resides. It is here that my family, consisting of my Mom, Dad, older brother, and two younger sisters lived for some six weeks as we …

Ha’aheo Nā Kanaka Paniolo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAEenK-acgw It's been a little over two weeks since the debut of my new single Ha'aheo Nā Kanaka Paniolo from my upcoming album 'Song for Waimea' and I couldn't be happier with the reception it has received. The highlight has been the realization of one of my dreams when my song was played on KAPA radio …

Steel String Origins In Hawaii

In my never-ending quest to uncover information relating to the early history of the acoustic steel string guitar in Hawaii I recently came across two sources of quality information that I would like to share. I previously wrote a little about the history of the dreadnaught guitar and the role of Hawaiian music in its …

Best Country/Americana of 2018

2018 has been quite a banner year for all things country and Americana. It seems as mainstream radio country keeps getting worse and worse, the grassroots "traditional" stuff keeps getting better and better. I won't get into the argument about whether or not we should even be using the term "Americana", you can someone's opinion …