Kenneth Makuakāne

Wow, I donʻt believe how time flies. I leave for Kaua‘i today to attend the annual Kaua‘i Music Festival, a four day event from Wednesday though Saturday.

This year, I will be teaching a couple of workshops. The first workshop will be on Apple computerʻs Garage Band software. This is a great tool for songwriters to use for developing a more than decent demo of their songs. The second workshop will be on writing Island Music. I will be showing the different styles of songwriting from a local perspective, geared for the island market.

If you are living on Kaua‘i or planning to travel to Kaua‘i this weekend, please come and check out the Friday night Island Music concert and the Saturday night Gala concert, all held on the grounds of the beautiful Hilton Kaua‘i Beach Resort.

My little boy is not little anymore. He just completed his junior year at Kamehameha Schools. This past year he went to his Junior Prom and the Senior Prom. Now imagine that! Here’s a picture of he and his date at the Senior Prom.

I went to Japan last weekend. I stayed at the Hotel Pacific in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was one of those whirlwind jaunts. We did only one show, but had such a great time eating Japanese food, riding the trains, shopping and doing other fun stuff like spending the afternoon in the music store.

This picture was taken by my producer friend Toshi Harasawa in Shibuya. I was trying out a Cole Clark guitar, the rage of Japan since Jack Johnson played it on tour.

What a sad day:( One of my favorite hangs, the rRed Elephant is closing their doors. For those of you who don’t know where they are located, it’s across the street from the Hawaii Theater.
I met and befriended many new friends there. I joined the Oahu Songwriters Group and was part of their rRed Elephant showcases. I also met the director of the Kauai Music Festival there and have since gotten on the Board of Directors.
The rRed Elephant will be sorely missed.

Iʻm still here in Tokyo and itʻs been a wonderful trip. Thought I would just write a short thing today since Iʻm on the internet. We leave back to Hawaii this evening. Will write a bigger blog on the happenings here. Till then Aloha!

I am off to Japan this weekend. I leave (in a couple of hours) Friday at 9AM for Narita, then busing it to Tokyo. Doing a concert with Obrian Eselu on Sunday. Flying back to Honolulu on Monday at 10PM, arriving at 10:30AM Monday morning. Now how crazy is that?

I had my regular commercial recording session from 8AM to 1PM, then I ran to my 2PM session at Rainforest Studios in Nu‘uanu to lay more tracks for my upcoming CD. Stephen Inglis and I recorded four songs with him playing different slack key tunings. What a nice player.

I also did scratch tracks of three new songs I wrote.

My producer Shawn Livinston Moseley did great job recording our guitars, using a U87 and KM84 going through a Neve sidecar for each instrument.

We got done around 11PM and I was burnt out. Next week we bring in drummer Jason Segler again to finish up his part on the rest of the music.

This is the start of another week of recording the Baibala Hemolele project. We have been recording the Hawaiian Bible for the last four years. It is coming to a close at the end of September. I will give you the website information as it becomes available.

Check out the KGMB TV newscast on this project.

I have been in the process of writing several books. A couple of years ago, my friend Jerre, a college English professor from Canada, got me focused on finishing my works and finding a publisher to handle the distribution and marketing.

Since then, I have met with several publishers who expressed interest in my works. For one reason or another, I didnʻt feel like those were the right fit for me. Publishing a book is not about making money, it is about expressing my inner feelings of my life and my culture and finding someone who believes in those same values. I believe I have found that perfect fit.

I have to submit my works to the executive committee for final acceptance, but the road is now clear for me.

Mahalo nui Keola Donaghy for redesigning and updating the blog site.  I truly believe it suits my personality.