I was talking to Wanda Certo who lives in Northern Virginia via email about my new CD and she began to asks some questions, which I answered in progressive emails. The wonderful woman took the bits and pieces of our chats and made a wonderful blog comment about it on Taropatch.net forum to my surprise. Let me paste her commentary below.
WANDA:
“Our friend Kennth has been relatively quiet, but working hard behind the scenes. He has a brand new CD entitled “The Dash” which has recently been released.
Kenneth intrigues me because of his word craft. He is a consummate poet and story teller. I even told him that the stories he is telling are what’s important to me and the music is almost like frosting on the cake. It is so interesting to me to get a glimpse into someones life at that specific point in time. You learn what is important to them, what is going on in their life at that point. It is indeed a piece of history — as good as a history book, but infinitely more enjoyable. Listening to his music is almost like sitting down and talking story while he is noodling around on a guitar. Just sonversation among friends.
If you go to his: Makuakane Blog, you can get instructions on how to download one of the beautiful love songs from his new CD. The song is Ku`u Pua Lei Melia. Here is his story behind the mele:
The mele was written at the end of summer for my son and his girlfriend who just graduated from high school and moving on to college on the mainland. He is in Oregon and she is in Las Vegas; he is the mountain and she is the pua. Since she left for school first, we say that he held the flower in his bosom, now only her fragrance remains there. The manu is his ipo or sweetheart. The thought of V3 continues to the shifting of metaphor is fine, common in older mele. She’s now the manu lele loa, he reminisces. This, to Keola, is the best line. Manu heu is a bird which is “feathering out”, figuratively a bird ready to leave the nest. Second meaning, manu is an intransitive verb, and it means that she (ke aloha) is maturing. Final meaning, similar, but ke aloha the emotion – their love is growing from a younger to a mature form of aloha.
If you go to you tube, you can listen to another (Auntie’s personal favorite from the CD) – Okie Dokie Makou
YouTube video
Here is Kenneth’s story behind the mele for this one:
Regard the YouTube song, the first verse was written about my cousin Skippy Ioane, who is actually a Kanaka‘ole, and seen as a Hawaiian activist. I see him as a passionate warrior. We are both from Keaukaha and remember when the State took half of our Hawaiian Homes land away to extend the Hilo Airport, and relocated those displaced Hawaiians to Panaewa Homestead. Regarding the Hilo Airport, the State never paid Hawaiian Homes the lease on it for 30 years and settled payment of only 20% during the Waihe‘e term – paying it to OHA instead. Mmm, thereʻs another injustice.
And now for the big questions — how the CD came to be entitled “The Dash” — you know, that dash between your birth date and the date you leave this earthly plane.
Lastly, The Dash is our lives. Itʻs that line between the two dates. It is our lifeʻs journey. Because I am into genealogy, I wanted to know more about my kupuna kahiko than those two dates. Who were they, what did they stand for, how did their lives impact the next generation? Since having these thoughts, I want to set a legacy for my life, something that will remain in the hearts of my ‘ohana forever. This is my kuleana to my keiki and my community.
Auntie thinks you guys will enjoy Kenneth’s music — contemporary, but so well rooted in tradition. And you know that extreme care has been taken with the `olelo Hawai`i. Keola D. would give him false cracks if he screwed up.
You can listen to samples here or download the whole album or buy a song at a time: on the Island Beats website.
A fine job, Kenneth. A fine job.”
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda
“>
