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- Crossing East: Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar
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- Dmae Roberts
Slack Key started in the mid 1800's when the Spanish Vaquerros introduced the guitar to Hawaii. The Hawaiians didn't like the tuning so they "loosened" the strings and thus Slack Key was born.
Master Musician Ledward Kaapana carries on the Hawaiian tradiition of Slack Key Guitar. Once closed to only Hawaiians, other ethicities around the world are joining the ranks of Slack Key performers such as Ozzie Katani who finds Slack Key guitar an integral part of sharing Hawaiian roots and community.
This five-minute feature is part of the Crossing East Asian American History series. It is an evergreen, self-contained module with intro and outro/credits.
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Piece Description
Slack Key started in the mid 1800's when the Spanish Vaquerros introduced the guitar to Hawaii. The Hawaiians didn't like the tuning so they "loosened" the strings and thus Slack Key was born. Master Musician Ledward Kaapana carries on the Hawaiian tradiition of Slack Key Guitar. Once closed to only Hawaiians, other ethicities around the world are joining the ranks of Slack Key performers such as Ozzie Katani who finds Slack Key guitar an integral part of sharing Hawaiian roots and community. This five-minute feature is part of the Crossing East Asian American History series. It is an evergreen, self-contained module with intro and outro/credits.
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Traci Tong
Posted on October 05, 2006 at 06:49 PM | Permalink
Review of Crossing East: Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar
Nice show ender or listening in rush hour traffic.
Dmae Roberts does a good job capturing the essence and the beauty of the Hawaiian slack key guitar.
She scores some of the island's best musicians for this piece and that only made me want to hear more of the guitar.
Let me say that she does a good job balancing between her explainations, the interviews and the music but for a music piece, I always want to hear more tunes.
One other point, several longtime slack key guitarists were mentioned in an actuality, but many listeners may need an added reference to who these musicians are.
Still, this is a lovely piece and Dmae's read is beautiful and melodious. A perfect match for this story.