Kaleponi

One of our favorite places to enjoy Hawaiian music is the modern day Honey’s at the Ko`olau golf course in Kane`ohe. It’s an awe inspiring setting with a warm audience and the wonderful music of the Hawaiian Boy Crew, consisting of Hawaiian Boy Mike Ka`awa, steel player and vocalist Paul Kim, and bassist/vocalist Analu Aina, and often including multi-instrumentalist Ocean Kaowili. These musicians are masters and they cover the spectrum from ancient chants to their own original Hawaiian compositions.

Here’s Mike singing an old favorite of mine, Green Rose Hula:

Paul Kim is one of my favorite steel guitar players and his bone dry humor adds a lot to the Honey’s experience, but his falsetto vocals are the icing on the cake, the sweet tones seem to float out of him. Here’s his version of Nani Helena:

Another reason we always include Honey’s at Ko`olau on our music adventures is the range of guest artists who add to the show. Lots of performers live on the windward side and stop in to share their talent. We knew Danny Lopes for his friendly welcome and great stories before we learned that he was the composer of an island classic, A Part of Me, A Part of You (The Hospital Song). Here he joins the crew to do his number, followed by a medley of old swing tunes:

My apologies for the audio distortion, I did a terrible of setting the levels on my recorder. But I thought it was worth putting up with the grit to hear these great performances.