Led Kaapana Visits NorCal

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.

Friday, September 16th, 2022

Slack key mastery is coming our way in October, Led Kaapana will be touring and I’ll be opening his shows. You can keep up with Led’s tours and performances by visiting his website: https://ledkaapana.com/

Here’s the latest list of his shows in northern California:

Oct 2nd, 5 PM. Crown Hall, Mendocino, CA
Oct 7th, 7:30 PM. The Cue, Concord, CA
Oct 8th, 7:30 PM. The Melon Ball, Davis, CA
Oct 9th, 6 PM. Club Fox, Redwood City, CA
Oct 14th, 7:30 PM. The Old Steeple, Ferndale, CA

You can buy tickets and find more information about the Mendocino show at Brown Paper Tickets.

Here’s how to get tickets for the show at the Melon Ball in Davis.

There’s a nice writeup and an opportunity to buy tickets for the Club Fox show in Redwood City at Eventbrite.

There’s no place like Ferndale, CA, and one of the things that makes the town special is The Old Steeple performance space, music store, music school and owl sanctuary. You can get tickets for Ledward’s show from Ferndale Music Company along with information about Led and the show.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2022 at 5:59 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.