Some Videos on the Homebrewed Music Channel

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.

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

It’s been a while since I’ve added any new music here at Kaleponi.com, but I haven’t misplaced my guitar or had any mishap. I maintain another web site that usually focuses on the techie side of things like video cameras, microphones, and guitar accessories. But of course whenever I play music on that channel it’s slack key, and every now and then I do a complete piece that might fit in here.

I’m a bit of a camera junkie, so when I saw a GoPro HD Hero2 at a reduced price I hit the Buy It button without really thinking about what I need in a video shooter. But once I had the little thing I went ahead and shot some slack key with it, that old hula favorite, Kaimana HIla, the song for the area around Waikiki and Diamond Head.

More recently, we hosted our every other year guitar party and I set up some gear to capture video of the players and instruments. We wound up with a nice assortment of clips even though they show only a fraction of the musicians and guitars who attended. I had the fun of recording E Nihi Ka Hele playing a magnificent little guitar by luthier John Mello.

I’m working up a few new tunes so I hope I’ll have more videos for my slack key channel soon, but in the meantime I hope you’ll enjoy these.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 at 7:52 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.