Tag Archives: kailua kona

LIVE 080 • Punahoa Special (Live at Hawaii Island Slack Key Festival)

Live, Slack Keybig island, fred punahoa, fred punahou, Hawaii, kailua kona, keauhou, Ki Ho'alu, kona coffee, mauna loa tuning, sheraton, Slack Key, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e

Here is a live version of “Punahoa Special” from 2007 (apologies for the camera work :-). This is a song I was fortunate enough to learn directly from Led Ka’apana, one that Led had in turn learned directly from his uncle Fred Punahoa. Though Fred never made a full album, he did make a notable appearance on the Waimea Music Festival album and fostered amazing talents of the next generation such as Led and Sonny Lim. This is an often covered song in the slack key world, and might also be the most popular song in Mauna Loa slack key tuning. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce live at the 25th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival “Kona Style,” at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort in Keauhou, Hawai’i 9/2/07.

LIVE 057 • Wake Up Slack Key

Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, open G, open tunings, Slack Key, Taro Patch, wake up

Wake Up Slack Key (also known as Ho’ala Ki Ho’alu) was one of the first slack key style songs I wrote. It stayed in my set for a number of years, though I haven’t played it much lately. This demo was an early version of the song recorded not long after I bought my first Taylor on eBay, a 310ce that became my main guitar for 9 years. This take among the others in my archive really captures the spirit of the tune. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 5/13/06.

LIVE 061 • New Day

Classic Rock, Live1968, big island, Fender, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, Holualoa, Jimmie Vaughan, kailua kona, late 90’s, love, peace, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Robert Keeley, stratocaster, thumbpicks, tranquil song, TS808, TS9, tubescreamer, VibroChamp

Here’s a demo of a song I wrote on electric guitar a while back. Then, as now, I played and recorded mostly acoustic fingerstyle tunes. This is one of a relatively few demos I made on electric guitar from that period in time. Hope you enjoy.

Setup is a late 90’s Fender Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster, through a Keeley tubescreamer (either a TS9 or a TS808) into a 1968 Fender VibroChamp. Recorded in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii on 5/3/06.

LIVE 056 • Sunday Slack Key (steel string guitar)

Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keybig island, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, Slack Key, sunday slack key, Taro Patch, thumbpicks

I originally wrote Sunday Slack Key as a single string melody, using fretted notes on only one string (and the other strings only open). Playing the melody on only one string is a concept I picked up at a jazz guitar clinic – I seem to remember Tal Farlow or Jim Hall proposing the idea as a means for chord melody – and the idea can be useful when arranging a fingerstyle song. Eventually I added a few fretted notes on some other strings, mostly to fill out the bass, yet the fretted notes of the melody remain mainly on one string. The name for the song came to me on a simple, relaxed Sunday, and seemed appropriate. This version of the song was recorded about five years after I wrote it and reflects a few modifications to earlier incarnations. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded at Goldsmith Studios in October, 2011, with a Taylor 310 (Elixir Polyweb medium gauge set) and a pair of Rode NT-5 microphones.

LIVE 055 • Sunday Slack Key (early version, nylon string guitar)

Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keybig island, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, Slack Key, sunday slack key, Taro Patch, thumbpicks

I originally wrote Sunday Slack Key as a single string melody, using fretted notes on only one string (and the other strings only open). Playing the melody on only one string is a concept I picked up at a jazz guitar clinic – I seem to remember Tal Farlow or Jim Hall proposing the idea as a means for chord melody – and the idea can be useful when arranging a fingerstyle song. Eventually I added a few fretted notes on some other strings, mostly to fill out the bass, yet the fretted notes of the melody remain mainly on one string. The name for the song came to me on a simple, relaxed Sunday, and seemed appropriate. This is an early version of the song recorded not long after I wrote it. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a nylon string guitar in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, 6/01/06.

LIVE 053 • Purple Orchid

Acoustic, Livebig island, Hawaii, Holualoa, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, kona coffee, relaxing music, Slack Key

Today’s demo from the vaults is Purple Orchid, a mellow slack key song played on nylon string guitar. The picture of me is in an ohana I had in Kailua Kona. Most of my recordings from this period were either done in that ohana or down by Magic Sands beach. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

LIVE 052 • Kona Snow

Acoustic, Livebig island, coffee trees, Hawaii, Holualoa, hualalai, kailua kona, kona coffee, kona snow, relaxing guitar, relaxing music

Kona Snow is another improvisatory piece recorded for my “Awake Again” project, which included a handful of songs that were connected by mostly shorter and improvisatory ‘transitions’ such as this. This song is named for the early spring blooming of the coffee trees on the slopes of Hualalai. People merrily dubbed the effect of white blossoms covering row after row of coffee trees “Kona Snow.” At the time I recorded this song, I was living next to a coffee orchard in Holualoa, Hawaii, just mauka of Kailua Kona. The setting amidst a wonderful agricultural tradition over a century old inspired me probably more than I knew at the time. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 6/20/09.

LIVE 045 • Transition One (3/16/09)

Acoustic, Blue Sky Guitar, Liveacoustic guitar, big island, Elixir HD Light, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, Hawaii, Holualoa, kailua kona, kona coffee, love, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, Taylor 310, taylor 310ce, Taylor 310e, Taylor Dreadnaught guitar, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks, tranquil song

Here is an improvisatory piece recorded for a project I had a few years back. The idea behind the project, called “Awake Again,” was to have a handful of songs that were connected by mostly shorter and improvisatory ‘transitions’ that would act as both glue and palette cleanser between the slightly more structured songs. The wallpaper shows me with my old Taylor 310ce that I used to record this song. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 310ce (Elixir Polyweb 80/20 Bronze) and a matched stereo pair of Shure KSM 141 microphones in Holualoa, Hawai’i, 3/16/09.

LIVE 044 • Makalawena – Slack Key Guitar

Acoustic, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, altered tunings, anchialine ponds, apogee one, big island, classical guitar, ear trumpet labs, edwina, Fingerstyle, Hawaii, Hawaiian coot, kailua kona, Keahole Point, Kekaha Kai State Park, Ki Ho'alu, Kona International Airport, love, Mahaiʻula Bay, makalawena, mauna loa tuning, open tunings, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, Slack Key, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

I named this seemingly easygoing yet still restive song after a charmingly beautiful and relatively isolated beach on the Kona Coast. Makalawena is part of that long stretch of white sandy beaches you see right before landing at Kona International Airport at nearby Keahole Point. The beach is generally accessible via a short hike from the neighboring Mahaiʻula Bay section of Kekaha Kai State Park. I remember camping out at Makalawena as a kid, exploring the rare anchialine ponds with their delicate red shrimp, and swimming in the waters of the bay. Today still, the neighboring marsh is a protected nesting ground, home to rare birds such as the Hawaiian coot. The song’s bridge seems to capture the strange sense of converging energies that I feel in special places such as these. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 414ce-NR (Rosewood/Spruce grand auditorium nylon string) and an Ear Trumpet Labs “Edwina” microphone.

LIVE 041 • Magic Sands – Slack Key Guitar

Fingerstyle, Live, Slack Keyacoustic guitar, big island beach, ear trumpet labs, edwina, fingerstyle guitar, Hawaii, kailua kona, Ki Ho'alu, Magic Sands, open g tuning, peaceful guitar music, relaxing guitar, relaxing music, rosewood taylor nylon, Slack Key, Taro Patch, Taylor 400 series, taylor 414ce-NR, taylor classical guitar, taylor grand auditorium, Taylor guitars, taylor nylon guitar, tranquil song

Here is a slack key style tune I wrote a while back while hanging out around Magic Sands beach in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. I originally wrote it on an old nylon string guitar. While I have a recording of this song played on steel string already posted, I wanted to go back and do a recording with my nylon string Taylor as well. There aren’t many songs I like to play on both steel and nylon, but this is one of them for some reason. Hope you enjoy.