HOLUALOA by Local Folk

LOCAL FOLK... February 2014 at Ward Center featuring Patty Clayton. Jim and Patty added awesome harmony and the ethno-bongo boys Jesse Yanez and Fatty Yuen slap on da groove. Lotsa fun with Patty from Denver, Colorado and her swinging cowboy songs... Mahalo plenty!

The West gets far out west as it can get !

Ward Center Na Mele Nei... Playing Paniolo songs where the Wild West gets far out west as it can get!  First Sunday with Jim Christian, Patty Clayton, Gordon Freitas...far right, our Canadian folksinger  songwritin' braddah Star Bredt. 

Hang Loose with LOCAL FOLK at Hang Ten

Gets a little wet this time of year at Turtle Bay where Gordon plays with Art Kalahiki and Jim Christian on Mondays and Thursdays from 5-7 pm.

Halau 'O Healii of San Diego 
Sang for my San Diego sistah Kathy and her Halau ' O Healii at the KUMU KAHI  Hula & Ukulele Festival ... Sam's Town, Las Vegas on the East side. A great weekend, Thursday thru Sunday. It was Kumu Sissy Kaios first Kumu Kahi festival. She and Uncle Lincoln were awesome hosts to seven Halau and a couple very large ukulele clubs. It was a blessed reunion with Healii and we had lotsa time to catch up. Reminiscing back to the days when we did many shows...remembering the spirit of the great musicians who have long since passed and honoring them by continuing the journey and acknowledging the legacy we are all a part of...the perpetuation of the Hawaiian culture. Mahalo nui loa...

Hawaiian Music, Golf & HSGA Steel Guitars

 Teamed back up with world renown Hawaiian Steel Guitarist braddah Greg Sardinha for the weekend. Friday morning acoustic duo playing for the Honolulu Country Club Brunch from 1130am - 1:30pm. It's all for golf and lunch of course. Lau lau, beef stew, chicken long rice, kalua pig, steamed fish, ogo... Ono!  Left there to visit a few hours  with Retired Command Sergeant Major Dad. Then, a short drive to the clubhouse at the Olomana Golf Course. More Hawaiian music from 4pm.- 6pm as Greg and I revisited our favorite hapa - haole tunes and arrangements we used to play over many years. Yep, we had a blast and remembered quite a few arrangements as we segued from song to song. Even tunes from the LOCAL FOLK cd... Sing Hawaiian Sing, Standing in da Ua, Aina.... We did it again Saturday after another much longer visit with Dad. Louise danced the hula KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE HANDS. Then Rick Rickard sat in singing on guitar. Greg opted to jump out to go talk story with friends and handed me his picks and bar. He said, " go ahead and bend the picks any way you like to fit your fingers" . After wailing out a strain of tropic exotica, I must say... I did a pretty good job bending those metal finger picks!
   The Hawaiian Steel Guitar convention is in town. All our mainland ohana. Check it out at hsga.org

Birthday Blues

  My birthday was Monday, April 22nd... Same day as Grandma Cornelio ( my mom's mom ) , Gabby Pahinui, Peter Frampton and a million other cool people.  Same exact day in 1956 ,  as Joy Reese, who was born the same day as me in Tripler Army Hospital (the big pink hospital on the hill ) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Didn't actually meet her until we met again in High School many years later in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Maybe I 'll attempt to find her on Facebook. April 22nd is my birthday and EARTH DAY !  It was a mellow day with a couple sushi and later a gig with big bro Art at Turtle Bay on the North Shore. Stopped by ADOBO, our friend Leo ' s restaurant in Wahiawa for some pork guisantes and chicken adobo on the way home. Filipino food can broke da mouth...so Ono! I recommend the Adobo Restaurant....mmmmm good!
  Saw all my birthday wishes from friends on Facebook and attempted to LIKE them all. LOL mahalo nui, thank you , salamat po, arigato gozaimasu to everyone. Mahalo for supporting my music too.
   Anyway, all this year I thought I was already 57 and turning 58.... Must have been how I was feeling...  smiLe. Actually, I was a 1956 Chevy,  turquoise and white, like the one my dad had in Okinawa when we were kids at Sukiran Elementary School. I must have been a smart kid, doing 6th grade math in third grade. Well my adult math skills didn't figure my own age right, duh... And I am a 1957 Chevy with full blown pointy tail fins now. They ( the Beatles ) say its yer birthday...it's my birthday too yea, ...it's official. I'm 57 years young.  Time to get my health, Telecasters and pedal board together... Shake dem Earth Day Blues ...write some groovin' songs too. Let there be inspiration!

PILIKIA in the Home Depot parking lot! LOL

Saturday was a total blast jammin'  with PILIKIA  for the Home Depot customer appreciation event... Big savings!  The music was awesome with Mark Yim at the helm, Alden Levi on bass, Casey Olsen on Hawaiian steel guitar, Dwight Kanae on guitar and Gordon Freitas playing his Pono ukulele. Remember,  Mark and Dwight used to play in the Peter Moon Band. In fact all these guys have performed all around the globe and played with EVERYBODY! Traditional Hawaiian to the hits from Kalapana to Peter Moon Band hits of course...  The  trio version of  PILIKIA (trouble) plays at the Charthouse in Waikiki every Friday from 6pm - 9. And again after swapping out a musician or two, from 9:30 to midnight - thirty.  Ono food!  Between 7:30 and 8pm you can see and hear the boom of fireworks across the parking lot. Not sure when I'm on... The crew gets rotated and I usually get called in when someone can't make it. Calamari, garlic chicken, spinach salad, pork chop...Way cool! I'm in.