Gordo's Bloggin' Noggin

Welcome to the Ainafolk Web Log

2009-04-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

ALOHA ya'll!
Welcome... new friends & old friends who have found their way here! If you don`t already know, Gordon Freitas is a world traveled, native Hawaiian and good-fun storyteller from the little coffee-pickin' town of Holualoa, Kona on the Big Island. Check out his songs and see how he paints portraits of island people and local culture with his lyric. He is usually found in Honolulu performing solo-lo mia, in a duo or with even more friends having way too much fun, in a band of kama`aina he calls LOCAL FOLK.
Check out Gordo' on http://FaceBook.com

Aloha mai kakou!
Malama pono (take care)
A hui hou ! (Come back... check the schedule... see ya `round)
"PEACEFUL ARIZONA"... An award winning tribute to those we will not forget... composed by a retired U.S. Navy Chief from Hawai'i" (Guess who served on active duty in the Navy for 21 years? )

`aina = land (Hawaiian)
Things to do while you're surfin' here:
Email Me: ainafolk@aol.com
My USS Arizona Tribute

Review the CDs: Local Folk and Aboriginal Art
This is an old Schedule
Find Out More About Gordon and Fan Reviews
Visit My Favorite Links

Duke Ching, 2008 Hawaii Music Award Winner!

2009-03-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is Duke Ching, legendary steel guitarist at E Hula Mau 2008.

Pau Hana sound check while cruising on the Pride of Hawaii... last aloha tour!

2008-06-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Reposted: This old post was certainly worth resurrecting, especially for the folks who ask me what my job was on the cruise ships. The Pride of Hawai'i was a brand new ship that barely made it a year in the islands before charting a new course to NCL's international fleet as the Jade. As part of the memory, here's a partial glimpse of the mechanics of our Hawaiian Duo -J-O-B. We introduce our guests to Hawaiian free style local jammin' and include lotsa their favorite songs that reconnect them with the good ol' days of their youth... from Don Ho, IZ and Blue Hawaiian Elvis to Bob Marley, and the Beach Boys. We made so many friends on that ship. Usually, the pool deck would be packed... folks gettin' their deep Hawaiian vacation tan while sippin' a boat drink or passing around some Coronas or Coors iced in plastic football helmets. Toward the end of our afternoon shift, a little rain chased off the over-baked sunbathers while the rest were off to dinner reservations and the show in the theatre. For a few months I was doubling as the rock guitarist in the Soul Rockin' Nites show, the wedding band guitar player for Tony & Tina's Wedding production and the solo guitarist in the lounge... not to be confused with the masterful performances of my good friend Butch O'Sullivan in the atrium and restaurant. Anyway, it was time to wind down the show and roll up the hose... when Eddie Pascua decided to whip out his little Nikon and video some of my old school guitar antics. In this video clip I fumbled through some classic chops I forgot a long time ago.. Ha ha aka aka, you can hear us laughing. We had too much fun... not only THAT day, but EVERYDAY! Aside from our goofiness in these moments, couples stopped to dance while the sheltered folks on the upper decks were quite entertained as always. I ended up with an Ibanez guitar after going thru my Godin Multiac Jazz, and a favorite Antigua Fender Telecaster, but here, my first new Schecter guitar + Digitech RP-200 pedal rig proved to have pretty good tone thanks to Eddie tweekin' the pedal to my personal preferences. From this day on the jams only get better as we keep Reeling in the Years! As we acknowledge our new friends who figure we enjoy what we do for a living... with aloha and a smiLe... I hope to be a rock star like Eddie Pascua when I grow up... That buggah is my guitar hero & tech guru. Aloha to that big ship!!

Where's Gordo? Wasabi Happenin'?

2008-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Da schedule & where Gordo can be found will be
posted at the top of this blog:
Every Other Tuesday at the Ground Floor downtown, Honolulu. Local Folk solo kine coffee house variety.(Up Alakea, first right on Queen St., right onto Richard.. there on corner, free parking in garage & street... ono grinds).

Local Folk at Waianae Army Rest Camp Feb 21, Saturday evening 6-10, rockin' by the ocean w/ Gordo, Eric Petersen & Pete Moe. Da mix plate folk rock, Hawaiiana traditional/contemporary, country cha-cha ... rock-a-cha aha blue Hawaiian soul-iolo party!

You might even find Gordo playing bass or ukulele with some of your favorite island artisis... Spotted at Higher Ground Coffee & Music Cafe in Wahiawa with Todd Adamski & Adj Larioza playing the grand opening with a line up including Ernie Cruz Jr. and John Cruz... and yes, "that was in the Hawaiian trio" with Greg Sardinha at the Honolulu Airport's International Terminal. Now I'm back on land after 4 years entertaining on the NCL America ships. Picking up a few choice gigs with long-time friends and taking time out to write more songs. "Gotta empty out the space between my ears. " Look for the YouTube.com videoclip at higherground808. Thats our bluegrass buddy Bob sitting in on bass.
Upcoming performance dates at very accessible locations are being planned... dates to be announced... email request for updated schedule to" ainafolk@aol.com

'Aina, title track on Peter Apo new release

2008-06-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

Peter Apo released a new CD entitled `Aina, after one of the two songs I wrote. The other song he chose to add to his musical collage was Pineapple Road. Get the CD... its way cool... funky and packed with soul. Mahalo Peter... it's great to be a songwriter, but even better when your song writing friends & mentors choose a song or even two of your songs for their CD... mahalo mo' plenty den much!

Deja Vu 1975: Driving with Egg Roll.inside my head .. thinkin', ..."empty my mind."

2007-07-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Every step of the journey IZ the journey... where we have been before and where we are going is all relative to where we are at this very moment. Humanity has long suffered from a condition called "waiting". Believing its all gonna get better sooner or later... expectations that exhaust and frustrate us and waste our time.
Life is too short for that.
A long drive fills my head with lots of wide open spaces and imagery for songs yet to be written... at the same time I find company in audiobooks as I listened to the familiar wisdom of Eckhart Tolle (enjoy this link to some of it) http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/EckhartTolle.html . With each mile I proceeded to empty my own head of clogged up irrelevant thoughts and started getting back in touch with my own inner stillness. There's something about driving that gets me closer to that place beyond the captivating beauty of external forms with names... that place where a state of connectedness with something immeasurable, indestuctible and greater than me exists... where I am totally here and present... where my true nature and inner essence of all things around me is revealed beyond the need for labels and prescribed form. Enlightenment for me is just being... being right here, right now... in a simple state of one-ness... simply aware of myself without all the mental noise... denying my ego of it's collected accomplishments that comprise its mind-based identity and ultimate control over me, me. me, me , me... "Eh, you somebody?" ha ha aka aka! K-den, I better stop thinkin' and let the smoke clear. Nice road, big hills, big trees and not too much traffic. This Cadillac I'm driving is a good, smooth ride. The weather is still cool and a leather or denim jacket was more than enough. Ate salads, crab & fresh fish to mexican food and fried chicken but took a break from my favorite Best Foods mayonaise. Its very refreshing and funny that I was on this journey before and might have always been clawing my way back. Maybe I never left it and have been hanging on to most of it all this time. I was already immersed in that type of discipline in the early seventies through martial arts and progressive youthful curiousity. Looks like I've kick-started it again in California... deja vu... San Francisco, Highway 101, mount Shasta, the Pacific Highway, the redwood forest... where this land was made for you and me. The country side looks just like the way Mr. Guthrie described it in a folk song... pretty much how I left it over 30 years ago~ "we have all been here before, we have all been here before..." (CSN&Y)
Time to get back to the cruise ships this weekend.

FREE the mind and you will end up buying another guitar... on the California Coast!

2007-07-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Aloha... I'm on the road in California visiting family and friends. Chillin' out on the land in a cool set of wheels... I'm off the cruise ships for a much needed breath of fresh air. Northern California to the Oregon coastline is a great place to take that breath. Sporadic jamming, recording, and the search for the Holy Grail guitar. Found a Martin CEO-5 in Napa Valley at ALL STAR GUITARS (2522 Jefferson St., Napa, CA. 94558). Mahalo to Dan "da man" Howard". What a cool shop! Called Uncle Mike and he checked it out on the internet... told me the price was gonna save me big bucks. It's a special edition 12-fret dreadnought, solid bearclaw spruce top, herringbone top trim, tortoise pick guard, old style small abalone dot inlays, old style logo, gloss body, satin finish neck, signed by Martin CEO, C.F. Martin IV... look it up at http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/CEO5.htm
Way cool!!! Maybe, just maybe... this axe might be THE ONE. Let's see... to get it back to the islands I'll carry it on the plane in a nice gig bag and stuff things that might make my suitcase too heavy in the guitar's hard shell case. Gonna leave my sound reinforcin' gear in Fremont and my very ornately inlayed Johnson guitar with Uncle Mike. I put medium gauge strings on dat buggah and tuned it down a full step so when you play an open G chord, its actually an F chord. E = D... etc. Now my Johnson sounds like it cost 4 times as much. Way cool, schwing! If you do something like that, ya might have to have the neck slightly adjusted or even the nut filed. I was told that the nut on a guitar bought with LIGHT gauge strings will accommodate a MEDIUM gauge. I think its a good idea to tune down at least a half step due to the extra tension imposed with a larger gauge string. All my guitars and music gear live mildew-free in a secure, air-conditioned storage unit halfway between Waikiki and home. Convenient in case I forget something while out on the road, but very, very expensive... ugh! Gotta play to pay...

Bodega Bay, Where Alfred Hitchcock filmed "THE BIRDS"

2007-07-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

Left Highway 101 in search of the Pacific Highway via the town of Sebastopol.
During that California road trip last year I revisited places I had been to back in 1976. The only thing missing 30 years later was the motorcycle and my youth. In July,2007, I got on that road again and found part of me still out there where my "song remains the same". It was rejuvenating, like a trip back in time... serene, calm,... just like the beginning of the movie... only different. Because, back when I was a kid, that was one scary movie!

Cruising Maui...2 days, every week!

2007-06-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Maui no ka oi... they say "it's the best" and I am inclined to agree... all the islands are beautiful, but Maui has become a memorable part of my life. Week after week, entertaining on NCL America cruise ships had me stopping overnite (for a whole 2 days). That gave me lotsa time to explore and get to know this island and some way cool people. Looking for a musical experience? Go wherever LIVE LOCAL TALENT is playing or see the fabulous Ulalena production show in Lahaina. See Uncle Willie K wherever he may be playing... always surrounded by awesome musicians. I saw Willie Nelson at Charlie's in Paiea! Aloha plenty to the supportive friends at Bounty Music. My favorite thing to do on Maui? Put the top down and drive for a beach. Kihei and keep on going... all the way to La Peruse Bay. Oh yeah, I finally snorkeled little Molokini atoll... that's smilin' Mark Stevens, freelance photographer. I've known him for years, starting from our Pride of Aloha days. He took some pics of us on the way to Molokini. Bass guy turned steel guitar nut, Troy Millard and I make it a point to hang loose with braddah Mark when can. By the way, his Dad, Mort Stevens, won an Emmy for writing the musical score for Hawaii-Five-O! Buckle up... click it or ticket = $100+.