When Led Last Visited

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Wednesday, January 31st, 2018

I hope folks have been visiting my YouTube page because I’ve been quite remiss in updating here. It’s way past time that I share a couple of videos I shot while Ledward Kaapana was visiting Walnut Creek back in October of 2017.

Things got pretty chilly here in the fall but I never got around to turning on the heater up in Brass Toucan Studio, so Led is doing his best to keep warm while we play. Here’s a duet on his classic Slack Key Lullaby:

Nani Ka`ala is one of my old favorites, there are many great versions around but one more can’t hurt. Led is showing off the rich warm sound of his Moore Bettah `ukulele and I’m using my “F guitar,” an early vintage Composite Acoustics made in my home state of Louisiana:

Led will be back on the mainland in February, touring with George Kahumoku. Check George’s calendar to see if they’ll be in your neighborhood. You know you don’t want to miss these guys.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2018 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.