Kahalenahele Novelty Quartette: Hilo March
A lively march in true 1930's Hawaiian style!
Hawaiian slack key guitar (ki ho`alu) from members of TaroPatch.net
Original Hawaiian (ki hoalu) songs and arrangements from members of ...the online ohana (family) for anyone interested in learning to play this beautiful guitar style. (Slack key is traditional Hawaiian "back porch" music and has recently received more widespread exposure through George Winston's label.)
The songs posted here are neither polished nor intended for commercial release; they are simply examples of slack key guitar played by regular people (both Hawaiian and haole) who love the style and want to share their learning experience with others.
If you're not currently a member of , please feel free to visit us at ...we have a wealth of resources for anyone interested in playing (or just listening to) slack key guitar and a great bunch of people to make it feel like home.
Story behind the song
Four gentlemen came together one afternoon at a house in the shade of a Magnolia. Mike brought out his guitar, set up to play Hawaiian-style. William unpacked his harp-`ukulele. Bob joined in, playing a bass part on his guitar, and Dave jumped in with his resonator `ukulele. The boys hadn't played together much, so they decided to pick out a tune they all could fight their way through: Henry Berger's "Hilo March."
Despite some flubs here and there, they all enjoyed their time playing together. After the session wound down, they discovered that the batteries in Bob's tape recorder ran down. But before they did, they managed to catch one song...Presenting here, for the only time, the Kahalenahele Novelty Quartette, playing "Hilo March".
I've been playing guitar for about 14 years. (Ahh! Where did the years go?) I haven't played a whole lotta slack, although I've loved the music since the first Dancing Cat compilation came out. I've got Ozzie's book and Mark Hanson's. I've played uke for 1 1/2 years, and Hawaiian guitar for 8 weeks or so.
I picked this song to play because I love the old Hawaiian and hapa haole songs - I've got somewhere around 30 hours of music from Hawaiian 78's (mostly late 1930's and earlier). For the story, I stole the first names from Kalama's Quartette (or Quartet): http://www.arhoolie.com/titles/7028.shtml. And, of course, "Kahalenahele" (and the part about the Magnolia, which happens to be outside my house) comes from my last name, Bushouse. The Kalama's version of Hilo March is a benchmark version, by the way, with twin Hawaiian guitars.
For the recording, I only needed one take on the ukes and "bass", a couple more on the lead. I figured the important thing was to just get something recorded, even if I wasn't super happy about it (I could record that lead 20 more times and still not be happy). Because it was a rough cut kind of thing, and because I really think the Kalama's Quartette was an incredible group of musicians, I made up the back story to go along with it.
BTW, I'm currently taking Hawaiian guitar lessons from Alan Dodge (http://www.dodgessundodgers.com), one of the original Cheap Suit Serenaders (http://www.timshome.com/css/default.htm).
