Kī hō`alu, or slack-key guitar, has come along way since the instrument was first introduced to the Islands in 1832. Mexican vaqueros and Hawaiian cowboys probably had no idea that they were creating something that would not only last but would grow into a whole new genre of music.

Today’s fans often forget that the guitar was here before the `ukulele andthe steel guitar – both thought of as very “Hawaiian” – were introduced andinvented, respectively. Both `ukulele and the steel guitar (still known outside the Islands as the “Hawaiian guitar”) are still immensely popular, despite some ups and downs, over the past century.

Little was known about kī hō`alu until some early recordings in the 1940s and 50s, and nothing had even been written about this Hawaiian form of tuning and playing the guitar until in the 1970s. A few paragraphs in liner notes on albums by such notables as Gabby Pahinui and Atta Isaacs was all that most fans knew about a style of playing that would eventually outshine other string instruments that had been introduced or invented in the late 1800s, and whose proponents would walk away with the first Grammy Awards for recorded Hawaiian music. Since the new category was introduced in 2005, all three Grammy Award winning CDs in the Hawaiian music category featured slack-key guitar music and musicians.

We recall writing the foreword to instruction books on slack-key guitar in the early 1970s, and being a part of the team that produced the first-ever slack-key guitar concerts as an officer and director of the non-profit Hawaiian Music Foundation and as a director and partner in HMPI (Hawaiian Music Productions Inc.) with George Kanahele, Noelani Kanoho Mahoe and Fred Blaney.

In April 1976, we wrote the first stories about slack-key guitar for publication outside Hawai`i (in the internationally published and circulated Guitar Player Magazine) and the magazine published our discography of recorded slack-key guitar music – the first ever. Soon, musicians all over the world were asking: “What is slack-key guitar?”

But it was mostly musicians who were learning about the art form. The public was still pretty much in the dark.

In the late1970s, we helped write “Hawai`i’s Music and Musicians,” with more information about slack-key guitar.

Gabby Pahinui

Milton Lau

And in 1982, two years after slack-key guitar giant Gabby Pahinui died, Milton Lau produced the first annual slack-key guitar festival, in Waimānalo, Gabby’s “hometown.” It was a huge success and has been repeated every year since, with growing success and continued influence on the music of Hawai`i.

The festival is now produced statewide, as well as overseas – on the Mainland as well as in several foreign countries. And many of Hawai`i’s top slack-key guitarists are already well known in some far away places where the genre was not even heard of only 30 years ago. Some of our best slack-key guitarists travel and perform to sell-out crowds in many foreign destinations.

Although Hawaiian music was very popular in Japan in the 1950s, when there were more than 500 bands in Tokyo that played only Hawaiian music and featured both `ukulele and steel guitar, there were no slack-key guitarists. In fact, even musicians in Japan did not know of the genre as recently as the 1960s.

Now, the nahenahe sound of the slacked strings on an acoustic guitar are becoming more common in Japan. And in 1990, Lau invited the first foreign slack-key guitar giant to Honolulu to perform in the ninth annual concert. Agnes Kimura showed that even non-Hawaiian musicians, born and raised and living outside Hawai`i, could master the art. She was a big hit with local fans and fellow guitarists, and was invited back the following year.

Agnes Kimura, right, the first foreign artist featured in the Hawaiian
Slack Key Guitar Festival -- Photo by Keith Haugen

On September 30, Agnes released "Ho`omana`o," a new Hawaiian music CD, and she celebrated 30 years of recording Hawaiian music with an anniversaryconcert in Japan (we’ll tell you about that next month). At the concert, she received congratulatory messages from Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, President/CEO Rex Johnson of the Hawai`i Tourism Authority, President Johnny Kai of the Music Foundation of Hawai`i, Japanese Consul General Toshio Kunikata, and Milton Lau, producer of The Hawaiian Slack Key Festival. They all recognized Agnes’ contribution to the strong ties that Hawai`i enjoys with Japan. Milton also invited Agnes back to perform again in 2008, in the 26th annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival.

We first heard Agnes and her group, The Slack-Key Four, when we were performing in the Sheraton Grande Hotel on Tokyo Bay in the 1980s, sounding very much like the multi-guitar combos that were also becoming very popular here at home. The day of traditional guitar-`ukulele-bass-steel guitar Hawaiian music group had been overcome in Japan by this new sound, just like the trend-setting Gabby Band in the 1970s. Although they are still relatively few slack-key guitarists in Japan, that country is now probably second only to Hawai`i in slack-key guitarists.

And the annual Hawaiian Slack Key Festival started by Milton Lau in 1982 continues to grow and expand.

“The festival has survived mainly because all of us are passionate about what we do and totally committed,” Milton said. “We believe in what we do and do it primarily because it is part of Hawai`i’s cultural heritage. We hope that through the work of the many musicians and artists we will be able to continue this legacy left by our kūpunas and aid in the effort to preserve and perpetuate this indigenous art from known as kī hō`alu.”

For the 25th annual event, held in August 2007 at the Kapi`olani Park Bandstand, Lau featured the following artists, in order of appearance: Kaoru Kohnoike, Stephen Inglis, John Keawe, Paul Togioka, Dwight Kanae, Danny Carvalho, Cindy Combs, Ozzie Kotani, Brittni Paiva, Michael Ka`awa, Haunani Apoliona, Ku`uipo Kumukahi, Ho`okena, Walt Keale, Pilioha, Pali, Donald Kaulia & LT Smooth, Ledward Ka`apana, Dennis & David Kamakahi, Maunalua, and Kaukahi. Each of the groups featured includes a slack-key guitarist

It was a great musical event and ideally, we’d share all of their music with you. But the next best thing is to include all of their pictures and suggest that you should buy their slack-key recordings. Support them, and say thanks to Milton Lau, who also produces many of the finest slack-key guitar CDs, and who has set up a non-profit organization, The Kī Hō`alu Foundation, Inc., to draw more attention to the art form and generate still more interest nationally. Thank you Milton Lau.

Kohnoike

Inglis

Keawe

Togioka

Kanae

Carvalho

Combs

Kotani

Paiva

Ka`awa

Apoliona & Kumukahi

Ho`okena

Keale

Pilioha

Pali

Kaulia

LT Smooth

Ledward Ka`apana

Dennis & David Kamakahi

Maunalua

Kaukahi

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