Hui Ohana - Young Hawaii Plays Old Hawaii download free

In 1972, the first Hui Ohana album took listeners by storm. Its title "Young Hawaii Plays Old Hawaii" proclaims that it revives songs from the previous 100 years. These were the songs that Ledward Kaapana, Nedward Kaapana, and Dennis Pavao heard and performed at garage parties from the time of their youth. Some of the composers honored on Young Hawaii Plays Old Hawaii were famous, such as Johnny Noble, Lena Machado, John Pi‘ilani Watkins, Mary Kawena Pukui, and Alfred Alohikea. Others, such as George Huddy were known mainly to the Kaapanas and their Konanui cousins. While the songs were traditional, the style was starkly new, with the powerful, almost twangy lead guitar of Ledward, Nedward's bass played almost like slack key, Dennis Pavao's clean rhythm guitar and spectacular falsetto, and harmonies previously approached only by the Kahauanu Lake Trio. With the two instrumentals, Ledward demonstrated that the islands had a new ki ho‘alo or Hawaiian slack key guitar master, even though he was only in his mid-twenties.In Young Hawaii Plays Old Hawaii, the Hui Ohana merged two powerful traditions: virtuosity on string instruments and three-part harmonies. They learned guitar and ukulele directly from their uncle Fred Punahoa, their father George Kaapana, their mother Tina Kaapana, and from hearing the recorded music of the more famous musicians Leonard Kwan and Gabby Pahinui. Harmony they first heard at parties and learned from their extended family but they perfected it as teenage entertainers, “The Harmony Hawaiians,” in part under the guidance of a friend named David Kawika Chung. By 1977,Young Hawaii Plays Old Hawaii was reissued on cassette format while still available as an LP and possibly ten years later it was reissued on the new CD format. Today, forty years after the release of the LP, this album as a CD remains in print and can be purchased on the MELE.com web site and other online music sources.