Category Archives: Live

LIVE 134 • Every Breath You Take by The Police

Classic Rock, Liveacoustic guitar, Beyerdynamic MC 930, blue sky guitar, every breath you take, Hawaii, honolulu, I’ll be watching you, nick borho, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, St. Louis Heights, sting, Sting fingerstyle guitar, taylor 412ce, Taylor 412ce-R, taylor grand concert, The Police (band)

Here is a fingerstyle cover of “Every Breath You Take,” the hypnotic signature tune from The Police. Many stories surround the writing, recording, and subsequent success of the song – for example one interesting tidbit is that Sting apparently wrote the song while sitting at Ian Fleming’s writing desk on his famous Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. With its classic guitar part, “Every Breath” has a mellow / dreamy feel seemingly at odds with its borderline creepy lyrics – though some may find the song is a tad less sinister as an instrumental 🙂 Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) a single Beyerdynamic MC 930 microphone in Honolulu, Hawai’i 8/25/14.

LIVE 122 • Fronds in the Wind (alt take)

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, blue sky guitar, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, honolulu, ki ho’alu, Neumann TLM 102, nick borho, open G, open tunings, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, Taro Patch

Here is an alternate take of a slack key song I wrote called “Fronds in the Wind.” Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone in Honolulu, Hawai’i 11/23/15.

LIVE 120 • Pono ATD Ukulele Improv #2

Gear, Liveblue sky guitar, nick borho, Pono ATD, Pono Tenor Deluxe, Pono ukulele, tenor ukulele, ukulele improv

Here is another improv I recorded on a Pono tenor ukulele. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Pono Acacia Tenor Deluxe (ATD) ukulele and a Telefunken M60 microphone.

LIVE 113 • Meadows

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island, blue sky guitar, Elixir Polyweb, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, Holualoa, Kailua-Kona, ki ho’alu, ksm141, Mamalahoa Highway, nick borho, open G, open tunings, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, shure, Slack Key, Taro Patch, taylor 310ce

“Meadows” is an original song I wrote during a full moon in Kailua-Kona. I think the song was influenced by the night air and night sounds – the occasional chirp of geckos, the distant sounds of traffic on Mamalahoa Highway and the waves in the ocean. This version was probably recorded within a year of when I wrote it. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Sapele/Spruce, Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 10/9/07.

LIVE 116 • Fair Wind (K22ce)

Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, blue sky guitar, fair wind cruise, fingerstyle guitar, Kealakekua Bay, Keauhou Bay, koa taylor, Line Audio CM4, nick borho, Open D, open tunings, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, taylor grand concert, Taylor k22ce

Here is an early version of my song “Fair Wind,” recorded not long after I wrote it. There is a boat of the same name that ran snorkel / dive cruises to Kealakekua Bay out of Keauhou Bay – still does – and my parents took me and my friends for a cruise on it for a number of my birthdays.

Recorded with a Taylor K22ce (solid koa grand concert with Elixir strings) and a Line Audio CM4 microphone.

77 Minutes Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Instrumental Music

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island, blue sky guitar, fingerstyle guitar, hanalei, Hawaii, Holualoa, kailua kona, kapaa, kauai, ki ho’alu, love, maui, mauna loa tuning, nick borho, open tunings, paia, peace, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, Taro Patch, taylor grand concert, tranquil song

For your listening pleasure here is a collection of Ki Ho’alu a/k/a Hawaiian Slack Key guitar instrumentals. This compilation includes both energetic and relaxed tunes, though I’d say the overall vibe is relaxing. I like to listen to some of those longer “relaxing music” videos while working on the computer and became inspired to produce some videos featuring my own performances. Hope you enjoy.

LIVE 108 • Wonderful Tonight Remix

Classic Rock, Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, apogee one, blue sky guitar, Elixir HD Light, Eric Clapton, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, honolulu, Neumann TLM 102, nick borho, Pattie Boyd, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor, st louis heights, Taylor 400 series, Taylor 412ce-R, taylor grand concert, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Here is a remix of my fingerstyle rendition of Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight. Eric wrote the song about his then-wife Pattie Boyd, who had already inspired great songs from Eric and previous husband George Harrison. This song has been the theme to many a high school prom, and its simple yet tasteful melody has held up over the years. In keeping with that, my arrangement here is fairly straight forward: it doesn’t move around the neck very much or have any unusual chord voicings. Hope you enjoy it.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone in Honolulu, Hawaii 4/27/15.

LIVE 112 • Saddle Up! Slack Key

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island, Elixir Polyweb, Hawaii, hawaiian cowboy, Holualoa, ki ho’alu, kona coffee festival, ksm141, pa’u rider, paniolo, shure, Slack Key, taylor 310ce, wahine tuning

Here is a song I wrote years back called ‘Saddle Up! Slack Key.’ It pays tribute to Hawaii’s unique Paniolo cowboy culture, including the beautiful Pa’u riders I would see at the Kona Coffee Festival Parade among other events. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Sapele/Spruce, Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 3/5/08.

Awake Again

Blue Sky Guitar, Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keycoffee farm, Fingerstyle, Holualoa, Ki Ho'alu, Slack Key

“Awake Again” is an unfinished project I started working on in in early 2009 and only recently revisited. Now, assembled here together for the first time since it was recorded, the music in this playlist brings the project to a conclusion of sorts.

This music here was recorded in Holualoa, Hawai’i, on 11 different dates ranging from 2/14/09 through 6/20/09. Rather than a finished product this is the complete ‘first draft,’ comprised of the best recordings from that time in the order I had envisioned for the completed project. Hope you enjoy.

Track List:
1 – Intro 6/13/09
2 – Dust Yourself Off 2/24/09
3 – Ohio River Rag 3/1/09
4 – Transition I 3/1/09
5 – Straight Ahead Blues 2/26/09
6 – Hand Dancing 6/20/09
7 – Home Abroad 3/18/09
8 – Make 3/19/09
9 – Moment in the Sun 4/20/09
10 – Crossing the Field 4/20/09
11 – Morning and Night 6/20/09
12 – Brownsboro Road 4/20/09
13 – Bull By the Horns 2/14/09
14 – Kona Snow 6/20/09
15 – Transition One 3/16/09
16 – Momentum 6/8/09
17 – Outro 6/20/09

LIVE 107 • Kuakini Slack Key

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island, blue sky guitar, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, Hulihe’e Palace, John Adams Kuakini, kailua kona, Kailua pier, ki ho’alu, Kuakini Highway, Larrivée, nick borho, open G, open tunings, P-09, Palani Road, parlor guitar, peaceful guitar, relaxing guitar, rosewood, sitka spruce, Slack Key, Taro Patch

Here is a demo of a song called Kuakini Slack Key, named after Kuakini Highway (which was in turn named after former governor of Hawai’i island and builder of Hulihe’e Palace, John Adams Kuakini). I wrote this in a friends’ condo which was off Kuakini, not far from Palani Road and the Kailua pier. As a kid, I also lived for several years in a home farther south that was just off Kuakini.

This is one of the few recordings done with a Larrivee parlor guitar I used to own – a rosewood / spruce P-09, which I have since sold. There’s also a fun little manual fade at the end. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Larrivée P-09 Parlor guitar (Rosewood / Sitka Spruce) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 8/27/07.

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Slack Key and Fingerstyle Guitar