​THE HAWAIIAN LEGACY FOUNDATION

KĪ HŌʻALU SLACK KEY
The Hawaiian Way

 

This film is a moving journey into the beauty and meaning of Hawaiian slack key music. Director Eddie Kamae's rare combination of master musician and cimematic storyteller is the key to showing how Hawaiʻi's cultural traditions and the kī hōʻalu guitar intertwine, and opening the door to a greater love of that music.

 

Candid interviews and archivial images combine with the music of many virtuoso performers, from the legendary Fred Punahou and Gabby Pahinui to Raymond Kane and today's Ledward Kaapana, to tell the slack key story froom the 1830s to the present. It shows you how this music perpetuates family tradition as songs, techniques and special string tunings are passed from one generation to the next.

 

All the main islands are visited, including seldon seen Niʻihau. as Eddie Kamae explores this kind of Hawaiian music and its links with the people and places that have nourished it. 

 

"A beloved document with candid interviews, virtuoso performances, impromptu dances, and some archival footage that tells, like never before, the precious story of slack key, from the early 19th century to the present."

Wayne Harada, Honolulu Advertiser