<click cover to purchase>
READ JOHN
BERGER'S REVIEW - HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN
In early 1990, I felt a need to record
some of the traditional Hawaiian folk music existing in rural communities
on the Big Island of Hawai’i. I thought the ‘90s may be the last
opportunity of this type in this or any other century. I immediately
thought of Kalapana, a Hawaiian community that was going through major
cultural changes.
I also thought of G-Girl Keli’iho’omalu who, with her husband Robert,
raised 11 children on a homestead at Kaimu (the famous black sand beach).
G-Girl’s voice has a pleasing,
Hawaiian quality and the songs she writes are about the Lord, love of the
land,
and her family. The Keli’iho’omalu’s sing the best on the picnic table
in the open-air patio of their home.
Shortly after I approached G-Girl about the recording, lava from Kilauea
began making it’s way toward the heart of Kalapana and by May, most of the
village had been destroyed.
The need to complete the project grew stronger in my heart.
I decided to record live sessions at Seawest Studios in Puna. Everyone
played and sang at once with a minimum of overdubs and remixing. The
result is pure, honest Hawaiian folk music - not unlike the kind you would
hear whenever G-Girl and her family get-together
in their patio for a jam.
The music brings to mind the great aloha and friendship of the people of
Kalapana, the beauty of the land and sea, and the children who will
inherit this truly Hawaiian place.
I hope it works the same magic on you.
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SONG LISTING
<click underlined titles for audio clip>
1. E Mililani ‘o lehova
2. Aloha Kaimu
3. Ku’u Makamae
4. Ku’u Pua Kilihune
5. Kula Mana
6. Hanohano Olinda
7. Ku’ulei Aloha
8. Na Pua Ka ‘ilima
9. Aina ‘o Laina’i
10. Ua Li’ili’i o Nalani
11. Home Kapaka
12. Ka Loke o Mau
13. Iesu No Ke Kahuhipa (CD Bonus Track)
14. E Mama E Slack Key (CD Bonus Track)
REVIEW BY JOHN
BERGER - Honolulu Star Bulletin
"Aloha Kaimu" - G-Girl Keli'iho'omalu
Michael Cord has been known for almost 20 years for his
state-of-the-art reissues of out-of-print Hawaiian and hapa-haole
recordings by extinct local record labels -- 49th State Hawaii and Bell,
to name a couple. Cord brings back a different type of Hawaiian music with
this remastered reissue of modern classic, first released by Big Island
record producer
John "Keoni" Fujitani in 1990.
G-Girl and her family represented a rural style of Hawaiian music that
Fujitani feared would soon be lost, and he captured much of it by having
the group record together "live" in the studio. G-Girl was the primary
vocalist, but Fujitani made sure to get her husband and sons on tape as
well. Some selections are family songs, written for family members or
about special places. Others are Hawaiian standards. All will be welcomed
by purists in search of traditional grass roots Hawaiian music.
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