In an Aloha State of Mind: Ray Kāne and "Popoki Slack Key"

Can you believe I've never been to Hawaii? It's about the closest thing in the United States (besides New Orleans) that we have to a foreign country within our borders and I've never been able to drag my rear end there. I lived on the west coast of the United States, and I never got there. A Hawaiian girl liked me in college, and I never got there.

My Jesuit-run university, Santa Clara University, had a relationship with a couple of Jesuit High Schools in Hawaii so we had a lot of Hawaiians, white and mixed or Native, that came through their pipeline. I learned a little about the state and its people. I learned that "haole" can be a derogatory term for white people, but I've never been there. A person who was in high school band with me lives in Hawaii, and I've never been there.

Part of the reason is that I never felt a real need to go there. But as I grow older, and the number of people who have been there tell me of their adventures, particularly those adventures in the less populated area, I start to feel like I'm missing something. I think that it might be time for me to go to Hawaii.

And, I'm starting to like Hawaiian music. In the past, I associated Hawaiian music narrowly with Don Ho or like performers. But the Global Music Show has introduced me to lots of different types of Hawaiian music, and the mellow sounds of slack key guitar playing. One of those artists is Ray Kāne. Kāne's middle name, Kaleoalohapoina'oleohelemanu, loosely translates as "the voice of love that comes and goes like a bird and will never be forgotten." A deceptively simple guitar style, coupled with unique ways of brushing and plucking or hammering on and pulling off the strings resulted in his "nahenahe" or sweet sounding music that he always felt should be played or sung from the heart. He was one of the first slack key masters to play public concerts and tour widely. He made his first recordings in 1961. In 1987, Kāne was honored as a national living treasure by the National Endowment of the Arts. Ray Kāne died in 2008, but his music lives on. Popoki Slack Key is from his 1998 CD Wa'ahila.