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Background, artists, and links to songs from back in the day:
Leland “Atta” Isaacs is mostly known for being one of Gabby Pahinui’s closest collaborators, but he was a fierce player in his own right. When the two guitarists met, they were co-workers in a road crew for the city of Honolulu, doing hard labor.
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/the-story...-9-albums/
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Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I've always loved slack key and have mostly "modern" recordings. I'll have to start digging through some of the videos and artists mentioned.
Luckily, I did get to see Cyril Pahinui a couple of years before he passed.
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I just tried to enroll in Jeff Peterson’s online class via Windward Community College but the deadline had passed. Not mentioned is our own Ikaika Marzo who is really good. Such a good player. Many good players on island. The father of my former housekeeper was a sensational slack key player and told me there were kanikapila’s up the hill a bit. What I am trying to say is there are many backyard players around and Big Island has more than its share of players. Cyril gave classes for awhile here (and signed my guitar!). So did Ozzie Kotani. Oddly, never mentioned in these discussions is a really good off-island occasional slack key player: Joni Mitchell. The girl never really learned guitar the traditional way and is known for tuning differently for different songs and often used open tunings (Big Yellow Taxi——late last night I heard the screen door slam…..). Alternative tunings are not slack key tunings but she definitely used open G and on Big Yellow Taxi, open D.
I might argue Keith Richards is a slack key guitarist. But try convincing the locals. Absolutely certain “Brown Sugar” is in open G. Not a relaxing or tranquil song. It has led me horribly astray. Wish I’d never heard it. If I could turn back time.
Makana charmed my socks off at the Palace. I would have removed whatever else he wanted but it never came to that.
Wait. Why do I know anything about any of this? Don’t know. Everything everywhere all at once.
