A Chant About the Beauty of the Moon at Night: Hawaiian Steel Guitar Masters 1913-1921

With Spanish guitars having been well established in the Hawaiian islands since the mid-1800s, local 16-year-old guitarist Joseph Kekuku is credited with inventing the iconic Pacific slide sound in 1889, utilising knives, combs and metals bars to produce a uniquely Hawaiian effect.

The true story of popular music in Hawaii has only emerged relatively recently. In the 1880s and 1890s, as powerful American business interests bought up island property, privatising communal land and gaining economic-political control, native Hawaiians responded with publicly performed songs (mele). While sounding relaxed and tropical, they often contained anti-American, pro-monarchy lyrics, sung in native language to unsuspecting white audiences. Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 by US-backed business and military, traditional culture, language and music was suppressed. As a result, many Hawaiian musicians emigrated to the US mainland, where their music was enthusiastically received. By 1916 Hawaiian steel guitar music was the top-selling recorded genre in the US, its popularity such that the slide style strongly influenced many southern Black musicians, who incorporated it into their own delta blues. Remastered and restored from original 78s, the 18 classic tracks in this collection provide a good overview of that early 20th century era, with performers like Irene West’s Royal Hawaiians, Pale K Lua, Biltmore Kalaluhi Orchestra and Hawaiian Quintette all demonstrating their considerable fretboard skills