#slack-key

Sonny Chillingworth is one of the greatest guitarists to ever live — slack key or not. Chillingworth was affectionately dubbed by those who knew him as the Waimea Cowboy due to his signature song, a rendition of a tune bearing that name by Hawaiian hula crooner Bill Aliʻiloa Lincoln. He harbored a deeply personal respect for the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) tradition. He learned many of his favorite tunes from family friends, his grandfather, and his uncle Harry Purdy, Jr. — a paniolo from the famous Parker Ranch who bestowed upon Chillingworth knowledge of the oldest style of slack key inherited from the Mexican vaquero . A cowboy through and through, he was rarely ever seen without his cowboy hat.

Chillingworth had a wide range of musical influences, playing everything from bossa nova, Mexican standards, and numbers by Elvis Presley in addition to Hawaiian slack key. One of his most famous songs, a Portuguese folk song —sung in Chillingworth's distinct bone-chilling baritone — is one of the only known examples of traditional Portuguese music played in a slack key style. Chillingworth learned the song phonetically through one of his uncle's poker partners, shadowing the lyrics repeatedly until his pronunciation was spot-on. He'd often lead into the song at shows by asking "How many Portuguese we got in the house?" People in attendance at Chillingworth's shows have noted that this gesture helped many of the Portuguese diaspora in Hawaiʻi feel at home.

Anyone who’s played around with a ukulele for any length of time has probably messed around with alternate tunings.  One that just about everyone tries at least once is slack-key tuning (g-C-E-G).  This is a fun tuning to play with because your open strings give you a C-major chord, and then you can produce the other major chords just by laying your finger across the fretboard.  It’s super simple until you need a minor chord - then the whole thing just falls apart.

But this morning I was fiddling around on my uke and the solution to this problem occurred to me - tune the E-string down to an E-flat!  Your ukulele will now be tuned g-C-Eb-G, and the open strings will give you a C-minor chord.  You get the various other minor chords in the same way you get the major chords using standard slack-key tuning, but you can also produce major chords by putting an additional find one fret higher on the third (from the top) string.

0-0-0-0 C-minor

0-0-1-0 C-major

2-2-2-2 D-minor

2-2-3-2 D-major

Hoku Award winner John Keawe returns to Hawaii Public Radio’s Atherton Studio with his sweet slack-key guitar and singing, with his wife Hope putting on the hula moves in on March 10th concert.

John Keawe grew up in the Hawaii Island town of Hawi listening to rock ‘n’ roll music. After a four-year tour in the Navy, he returned home and was drawn to slack-key, eventually teaching himself to play this style of music and developing his own distinct style.

The Descendants, a film set in Hawaii, has just had its UK release.  I've always been a big fan of Alexander Payne's films and this has the added bonus of a slack-key soundtrack featuring lots of Gabby Pahinui.  I know Pahinui's music a little through Ry Cooder and it really is great.  Hawaii has such a strong musical heritage and there's a wealth of great music there so it's great to see it featured in a film this way.

A great soundtrack, which I'll be listening to spotify, and a great director, this has to be worth a trip to the cinema.

Gabby Pahinui - Lei Aloha Lei Makamae

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J1lz5U6DmI

Slack-key guitar master and noted Hawaiian music performer and composer Pekelo Cosma died Wednesday. He was 51.

Friends and family members remembered Cosma for his distinctive falsetto singing style, compositions celebrating his birthplace of Hana and other special places in the islands, and for his commitment to community and charity events.

Ex-wife Robin White said Cosma died around 6 a.m. at his home in Makawao, of heart failure.