Kenneth Makuakāne

This yearʻs NHC will be entirely in the Hawaiian language. The convention will run Tuesday through Thursday.
Read about it in the West Hawaii Today.

The Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts just released information regarding a new category addition for the 2009 Hoku Awards. It has been a long overdue addition. It is definitely not a response to the domination of Slack Key in the Hawaiian Album of the Year category of the Grammy Awards, but a recognition of an island art form.

Read this article.

I just finished my recording session for the day. We are burning rough tracks now. We started at 10am. After laying down overdubs, we did basic tracks on 3 new songs.
We took a little dinner break, then dove right into the guide vocals. I sang 18 songs, wow. By the end, my voice was shot, as well as my fingers from playing guitar and ʻukulele. We did rough mixes of all the songs and a waiting for the CD burning to conclude.
Boy I havenʻt had that kind of long day in years. I forgot how much fun and hard work it was.

I performed at the Senior Fair at the Blaisedell yesterday with Marlene Sai. I was introduced to the main stage sound guy who quickly asked for my stage requirements. Because we were only scheduled for a short set, I didnʻt bring my stomp box gear. I told him we needed a wireless for the singer, 2 D.I.ʻs and 2 vocal mics.
We get on stage to set up and there are only two mics (not the same kind) on to stands (with no booms), and no D.I.ʻs. Luckily we had long guitar chords. The main mixer was on stage right (behind the main speakers?). We did a sound check (haha). My partner asked to roll off the bass on his mic. The tech kept rolling it off on my mic, which is channel 1 (not really). I tell the sound guy to mute channel 3. My partner could still be heard, at which point I told the guy he was changing the EQ on the wrong channel (duh). This fiasco went on for a little while until the MC got antsy, so we just started.
We were half way through the first verse and the sound system screamed at 130db. Half of the old womenʻs hairdos immediately went flat and a few false teeth shattered.
Well I could go on and on but the performance was marred from the beginning. We had stage monitors that werenʻt on, mains that went soft and loud and a sound tech that kept putsing with our sound. I wished I had a super soaker or a fire hose to keep him away from the mixer.
We had a good laugh after the gig; what else could we do?

I had the most incredible Sunday. Performed at the Senior Fair, joined the tennis club, had dinner with friends, fell asleep for awhile. Ahhh!

I have a nice collection of acoustic and electric guitars for my CD project. Itʻs been such a long time since I could claim recording bliss. I have so many friends who are helping me out; without them, I would still be at square one.

I played at the 6th Annual Kapolei Summer Sunset Festival today. Iʻve never been at this thing and was very happy I went. Man the food booths were packed with great stuff.
My performance was really fun, including some songs from my upcoming CD. I was joined on stage by Helene Mililani Honda who did a couple of wonderful hula for the crowd. She is running for an at-large seat for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) in the general elections in November. Good luck to her.
One of the coolest things at this festival was that they were showing a movie at 7pm. Right behind the entertainment stage they were blowing up a GIANT screen. I was blown away at how portable things are getting.
I hope I get invited back next year, because it was a fun festival.

I am performing in the Ala Moana Hotelʻs Plantation Cafe this morning for the KUMU FM 94.7 “Breakfast Club” with Frank B. Shaner and Mandy Suganuma.
Todayʻs entertainment will include Leokane Pryor, Holunape, Hoku Zuttermeister and myself. The radio show will be broadcasted live 10a – 11:30a. Hope to see you on the radio.

Well, well… Iʻve gotten several comments regarding my North Shore recording retreat. To my delight, my friend has the place for another three months, so we are definitely going to do it again and again. Iʻll post pictures when the time comes.

I flew to Kona on Sunday to assist in the 16th Annual Kona Slack Key Festival. It was such a beautiful day on the great lawn at the Keauhou Beach Resort. The concert was very well received by a throng of happy people. The show went on for six hours with many “hana hou” requests from the audience.
After a full day of incredible music, we ended the evening in the dining room to Lobster bisque and a steak dinner. We caught the late flight back to Honolulu, exhausted but fulfilled.
I was very fortunate to play alongside Kawika Kahiapo, who played several songs from his upcoming CD.