Remembering Auntie Lea

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.

Saturday, May 28th, 2022

Lynn has been dancing hula since we retired, getting to be quite a few years now, and we have made many great friends through that time. One of the most precious of those new friends was Lea Hadlich, a dainty bundle of grace and energy who filled her many years with family, with learning, with travel, and with dance. During those delightful practice sessions we hosted for the kupuna dancers Lea brought the energy and focus that made the most of their efforts.

When Lea requested that I play a song, she nearly always asked for Lovely Hula Hands, one of R. Alex Anderson’s many classics. And if she was going to dance the song, she always asked me to play it slowly. So when I set out to do a little tribute to her I knew I should make it Lovely Hula Hands played just as slowly as I possibly could.

Of course if I were really playing for Lea to dance I would have to sing, but I would never subject you to that.

This clip was shot at The Brass Toucan, my home studio. The guitar I used is my beloved Kathy Wingert Model E tuned to taropatch open G (D G D G B D from low pitch to high). This arrangement plays through the song once in the key of C then modulates to the key of G. I used my Zoom F6 audio recorder with a pair of DPA 4061 miniature omnidirectional condensers plugged directly into the recorder. The video was captured on a Panasonic Lumix GH5 and a GH4, then the whole thing was edited in Edius 9.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2022 at 6:05 am 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.