01-30-2008, 07:39 PM
"Pure Gabby" is one of the better compilations of Gabby's music. Another recording with Atta Issacs, "Two Slack Key Guitars" is also an amazing recording, two truly amazing guitarists. Lotta jazz stylings in the slack-key. I got turned on to slack-key in the mid-60s by a haole classmate who had taken ukulele lessons from a guy named Hal Lawrence (I think) in Honolulu. The only records available were LPs by Leonard Kwan, Sonny Chillingworth, and the Sons of Hawaii (?). The latter put out an album called' "Kanikapila!" Gabby was in the group but no one was a star, except to their families and friends, maybe. If I recall correctly, the group was composed of Gabby (guitar), Eddie Kamae (ukulele), Barney Issacs (Atta's dad, I think, on steel guitar), and Joe "Bla" something (bass). Really tight stuff. At the Big Island Music Festival in Hilo, two years ago, there was a group who played just like them. But I don't remember who they were.
Regarding the former mistitled subject about the Superferry, there was the hydrofoil for a while. Was that an auto ferry, or just a people mover/marine mammal slicer?
I don't go as far back as Bill Tapia, my mind can only recall from the early 50's. But it was way different. Statehood, in 1959, made one of the biggest differences. When you grow up in an insular setting like an island and you don't know any different, life is fine. Salted salmon, canned spinach, Spam, Vienna Sausage, Carnation condensed milk; the HRT (Honolulu Rapid Transit buses); Lani Moo - the cow mascot for Meadow Gold, or Dairymens, or Foremost, I forget which; Kini Popo, Lucky Luck, Primo Beer, etc. were all part of the fabric of life here. Well, in Honolulu, at least. My recollections of the Big Island and Maui are vague: seeing lava in what I think was Halema'uma'u firepit; a crater that sunk into a farmer's field in Kapoho or Pahoa, I forget; going to one of my grandfather's funerals in Makawao and actually seeing a funeral pyre. The ensuing development, crowds of people and cars, however.... it's why I had no interest in moving back to Hawai'i after having lived on the west coast for too many years. When I visited my aunt and uncle in Mtn. View in 1990, the east side of the BI reminded me of the "olden days". It became possible for me to think about living in Hawai'i again. So, my wife bravely made the leap with me and here we are.
Regarding the former mistitled subject about the Superferry, there was the hydrofoil for a while. Was that an auto ferry, or just a people mover/marine mammal slicer?
I don't go as far back as Bill Tapia, my mind can only recall from the early 50's. But it was way different. Statehood, in 1959, made one of the biggest differences. When you grow up in an insular setting like an island and you don't know any different, life is fine. Salted salmon, canned spinach, Spam, Vienna Sausage, Carnation condensed milk; the HRT (Honolulu Rapid Transit buses); Lani Moo - the cow mascot for Meadow Gold, or Dairymens, or Foremost, I forget which; Kini Popo, Lucky Luck, Primo Beer, etc. were all part of the fabric of life here. Well, in Honolulu, at least. My recollections of the Big Island and Maui are vague: seeing lava in what I think was Halema'uma'u firepit; a crater that sunk into a farmer's field in Kapoho or Pahoa, I forget; going to one of my grandfather's funerals in Makawao and actually seeing a funeral pyre. The ensuing development, crowds of people and cars, however.... it's why I had no interest in moving back to Hawai'i after having lived on the west coast for too many years. When I visited my aunt and uncle in Mtn. View in 1990, the east side of the BI reminded me of the "olden days". It became possible for me to think about living in Hawai'i again. So, my wife bravely made the leap with me and here we are.