Hawaiian Grass by Rand Anderson & Friends (Chee Hoo Records)
Producer: Rand Anderson
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-Album of the Year (Producer’s & Artist’s Award)
-Island Music Album of the Year
Spotify
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/us/album/hawaiian-grass/1845686980
What happens when you mix a a bluegrass “pick” with a Hawaiian backyard Kanikapila jam? Hawaiian Grass is a collection of my favorite Hawaiian songs from over the last century performed by bluegrass and slack key musicians. All songs were recorded in the same tempos and keys as the original recordings, however, the “feel” was changed to give it a more “Appalachian” bluegrass sort of feel. The chords and melodies are more complex than many of the standard bluegrass tunes.
Track 1 – Cheri
A beautiful song of a girl flying away from paradise. I got schooled on to this song by when I got a chance to play iwith Kaleo Phillips backstage in the green room before a show with Slack Key Ohana. This is my Alohabilly arrangement with Kala’e Camarillo and Kela Sako singing.
Words & Music – Phil Keat and Steve Wofford
Lead Vocals, Ukulele – Kala’e Camarillo
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Slack Key Guitar – Brian Witkin
Guitar, Mandolin – Rand Anderson. Performed by Peter Moon Band in 1982
Track 2 – “Waimanalo Blues”
A protest song originally titled “Nanakuli Blues” written by Thor Wold and Liko Martin in 1971 during the Hawaiian Renaissance, later localized to Waimanalo by the band Country Comfort for their 1974 album “We Are the Children”. The song expresses concerns about the increasing development and tourism in Hawaiʻi, advocating for the protection of Indigenous Hawaiian lands and culture.
Thor Wold and Liko Martin, both involved in the Hawaiian Renaissance movement, wrote the song initially for Nānākuli. The song emerged from the activism surrounding the eviction of Native Hawaiians and farmers in the Kalama Valley in 1971. Liko Martin was known for his politically charged songs that blended traditional Hawaiian music with powerful lyrical messages.
The band Country Comfort, a group from Waimānalo, asked for the composers’ blessing to record the song and change its focus from Nānākuli to their hometown of Waimānalo. Lead Vocals, Resophonic Guitar – Tavana McMoore
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Fiddle – Girish Varma
Slack Key Guitar – Kawika Kahiapo Percussion – August Lopoka Colon Jr.
Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson.
Track 3 – “Moonlight Lady”
The song was co-written by Carlos Andrade and Patrick Cockett. It was first performed and released by the Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band in 1975.
Along with Bla Pahinui (Gabby’s son) sings lead vocals, with Cyril Pahinui (his brother), Randy Lorenzo, and Ry Cooder also on the track.
It was one of the band’s biggest hits and showcases the distinctive sound of Hawaiian slack-key guitar. Gabby Pahinui was a pivotal figure in Hawaiian music, known as the father of modern slack-key guitar. He was a key contributor to the Hawaiian cultural renaissance of the 1960s and 1970s. He often performed and recorded with his sons, including the Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band.
It was also recorded by the writers’ band, Na Pali in 1987 on their album, Pacific Tunings. The band consisted of Pancho Graham, Carlos Andrade, Pat Cockett, and Fred Lunt on Steel.
Lead Vocals, Slack Key Guitar – Kawika Kahiapo
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Resophonic Guitar – Greg Sardinha
Guitar, Mandolin – Rand Anderson
Track 4 – “Hello Waimanalo”
Country Comfort was formed in the low-income country area of Waimanalo by three childhood friends: Billy Kaui, Jimmy Freudenberg and Chuck Lee. Country Comfort was of great importance in Hawaii’s music. They started what many call contemporary island music – some call this the third wave of Hawaii’s music. There was the music of the 1950s and 1960s called “Hapa Haole Music.” This is considered the first wave. The music from this period sounded like swing or jazz music from the 1940s and often portrayed Hawai’i very romantically, as a perfect oasis. The music of the late 1960s and early 1970s called “Traditional Hawaiian Music,” is considered the second wave. This music was often sung entirely in Hawaiian and represented cultural aspects of Hawai’i. The third wave called “Contemporary Island Music,” is from the 1970s to the present, with Country Comfort being the first to perform in this style. This wave of music was sung entirely in English and was closer in form to rock and roll than traditional Hawaiian styles. Yet there was something undeniably local about the sound.
In 1976 Country Comfort released their second album. “Country Comfort II” was another big hit for the group. The album went to the top of the charts on the strength of two hit singles, “Pretty Girl,” written by Kaui, and “Hello Waimanalo,” written by Kaui and Freudenberg. The second album seemed to have higher production values than the first. This second album also found the band exploring country and western sounds more heavily than before. Yet the music started to take a back seat to the partying. The excess of alcohol and drugs finally caught up with the band, and in the summer of 1976, a few months after their second release, Country Comfort disbanded. On March 30, 1978, Billy Kaui passed away from a brain hemorrhage. He was 28 years old.
Words/Music – Billy Kaui & Jimmy Freudenberg
Lead Vocal – Alex Gray
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Mandolin – Jake Staron
Bass, Acoustic Guitar – Rand Anderson
Backing Vocals – Jake Staron, Lindy Crosby, Rand Anderson
Track 5 – “Blue Sand”
Here is a song performed by Marty Robbins, with steel guitar by Jerry Byrd. It was written by Jerry Byrd and recorded on February 7, 1962, appearing on the album Hawaii’s Calling Me released in 1963. The “Polynesian wave” was popular at the time (influenced by artists like Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii). The album venture itself was not a major commercial success for Marty Robbins.
Jerry Byrd played non-pedal steel for many artists including Hank Williams (playing on classics like “Lovesick Blues” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”), Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, and Marty Robbins.
In the early 1970s, Byrd moved to Hawaii to pursue his lifelong passion for Hawaiian music, a genre he felt was being neglected.
Marty Robbins and Jerry Byrd collaborated on the 1965 country music TV series, *The Drifter*, where Robbins starred as the title character and Byrd was the steel guitar player.
Lead & Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Bobby Ingano – Hawaiian Steel Guitar
Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson
Track 6 – “Sweet Lady of Waiahole”
The song refers to Fujiko Matayoshi, a real woman from Waiʻāhole, Hawaiʻi, known for her selfless kindness and hard work selling fruits to support her family. She is immortalized in the popular Hawaiian song of the same name, which became an island music classic.
“After her husband died [February 18, 1966], Fujiko needed a way to support her children, so every day, she would gather all her fruits in a wheelbarrow and wheel them down to sell on Kamehameha Highway.” (McGrath)
“The neighbors, when they saw us, they would always say our mom was the kindest woman. She would make sweet potato tempura and give out to all the kids at the Waiāhole School basketball court.”
“Or she would give to the kids who swam in the swimming hole behind our house. Sometimes she’d make andagi with chocolate or sweet potato inside. She always had something for them to eat.” (Fujikos’ daughter, Nancy; McGrath)
Fujiko became known as the ”Sweet Lady of Waiāhole.” “Being a staple in her community and seen as a symbol of selfless acts of kindness, she was also supportive of grass roots efforts in preservation of their farm community. ‘The Sweet Lady’ had grit and also a feisty side.” (Leilani Rivera) Fujiko passed away on March 30, 1985.
Words/Music – Gordon Broad
Lead Vocal – Savannah Fliers
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Ukulele – Kama’e Camarillo
Upright Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Guitar – Jake Staron
Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson
Track 7 – “Ballad of Keawaiki”
I first heard this tune about 5 years ago. It was the Peter Moon Band version from his album Tropical Storm, released in 1979 With the sweet guitar riff harmonies and modal chord structures, I was blown away. I did not really know the lineage of the music from the Hawaiian Renaissance period of the 1970s. It really caused me to deep dive into the music of Peter Moon, Country Comfort, Na Pali. I’m pretty sure this was my favorite song of the period.
Fast forward to 2024. I was playing a Hula show with Slack Key Ohana and we had a Hawaiian singer named Kaleo Phillips joining us for the set. First off, my youngest son is named Kaleo (which means the voice in Hawaiian language) so I hit it off. So we were sitting in the green room with a couple acoustic guitars and we were jamming some Country Comfort and Peter Moon songs. I asked Kaleo if he knew the song “Ballad of Keawaiki”. He smiled and busted it out in such a way I got chicken skin. Unbeknownst to me, he had recorded a version of it with the writer, Randy Lorenzo, who had been a member of Country Comfort and Peter Moon Band. For me, everything had come full circle. That became the catalyst for me to do this record. I am very grateful to the time I got to spend with Kaleo. Go listen to his recordings!
Words & Music – Randy Lorenzo
Arranged & Produced – Rand Anderson
Lead Vocals, Resophonic Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Bass – Rand Anderson
Backing Vocals – Lindy Crosby
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Track 8 – “Tiny Bubbles”
An iconic song written by Léon Pober and performed by Don Ho. The single peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1967. By 1968, “Tiny Bubbles” was covered about 34 times. It was considered to be Ho’s signature song.
Tiny Bubbles was the B side of the 45 single “Born Free”. The producer was Sonny Burke and did not feel Ho did not perform the song “Born Free” very well.
Tiny Bubbles was an over night hit and took off like a rocket. This one song would open major doors for Don Ho including the opportunity for him to buy his family a house.
“Tiny Bubbles” was originally written for Lawrence Welk, since he tended to perform “champagne music”. Welk turned it down, although he later performed the song several times on his television show after it became a hit.
“Tiny Bubbles” was considered to be Ho’s signature song. During one performance, after nearly thousands, Ho reportedly quipped “God, I hate that song”.
Lead Vocals, Resophonic Guitar – Tavana McMoore
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson
Track 9 – “Pearly Shells”
I pulled this straight from the Don Ho medley. The song was created when Webley Edwards, the host of the world-famous radio show “Hawai`i Calls” put English words to the melody of an older Hawaiian language song. Edwards collaborated with Leon Pober, using the melody line from locally popular “Pupu A `O `Ewa”.
From the books “Na Mele O Hawai`i” (Elbert & Mahoe) and “Olowalu Massacre” (Aubrey Janion, we learn the following story which is referred to in the lyrics of the traditional “Pupu A `O `Ewa”: “Shells of `Ewa /throngs of people/coming to learn/the news of the land.”
The “news of the land” was the discovery of pearl oysters at Pu`uloa, the Hawaiian name for Pearl Harbor, protected by Ka`ahupahau, the shark goddess. The lyrics also mention Ka`ala, which is the highest mountain on O`ahu, and Polea, located in `Ewa. Nu`a and naue (in the chorus) are often interchanged with nuku (mouth) and lawe (bring.) Moa`e is the name of a tradewind.
In 1909, the Navy issued a $1.7 thousand contract for construction of the first Pearl Harbor dry dock. Kapuna Kanakeawe, a Hawaiian fisherman, told the contractor to build it in another location as the spot they selected was the home of the shark goddess. Work stopped after three months as things kept going wrong. Cement would not pour and the contractor could not pump water out of the dry dock.
February 17, 1913, two years behind schedule, opening ceremonies were held. Then the dry dock exploded. One man was killed, $4,000,000 lost and four years of work demolished. Another contract was issued in November, 1914. As work progressed, the early warning given by Kanakeawe was remembered.
Mrs. Puahi, a kahuna, was called and instructed the foreman, David Richards, in the necessary rituals to appease Ka`ahupahau and safeguard the project. After sacrifices were made, prayers chanted and rituals performed, the project was declared safe. When the bottom was pumped out, the skeleton of a 14-foot shark was discovered. (Pearl Harbor was also the site of ancient Hawaiian fishponds.). Lead & Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson
Track 10 – “Little Grass Shack”
This song written by Tommy Harrison, Bill Cogswell, and Johhny Noble in 1933, is a Hawaiian song in the style known as hapa haole. One of the earliest recordings by Ted Fio Rito and his orchestra reached number one on the charts in 1934. It has been heard in many movies and television shows and has been covered dozens of times. The title is sometimes shortened to “My Little Grass Shack” or “Little Grass Shack”.
The song was written by Tommy Harrison and Bill Cogswell for Kona’s Independence Day celebration in 1933. Kealakekua Bay was the setting for the annual Fourth of July canoe races… During the festivities, a new song written in honor of the occasion was sung for the first time in public. As unfamiliar lyrics rang out over the water, smiling hula dancers swished to and fro, laughing as they imitated swimming fishes and eating two-finger poi with their nimble fingers.
Cogswell, a Montana native working in Honolulu. He wrote the lyrics, a parody of a 1924 song, “Back in Hackensack New Jersey.” Harrison, who composed the music, showed the song to Hawaiian songwriter and band leader Johnny Noble, a leading figure in hapa haole music. Noble had already heard the song but rejected it because of its similarity to “Hackensack” and because “everyone seemed to have claimed writing it.”
He faced two challenges: Revising the melody to avoid conflicts with “Hackensack” without altering Cogswell’s words, as he was “inspired by the lyrics” and their “nostalgic appeal”, and crafting the song into a hit. For days Johnny worked at the piano, playing phrases over and over, scribbling in notes and rests, and still he was not satisfied. There was something he wanted to do to it, but it would not come.
Johnny Noble’s talent at creating hapa haole tunes tailor-made for tourists’ tastes, but palatable for locals as well. Considered a fad in 1915, hapa haole is a hybrid genre that mixed American jazz and dance rhythms such as swing and foxtrot with Hawaiian instrumentation (such as the steel guitar and ukulele), and lyrics in both English and Hawaiian. The music craze helped promote tourism to Hawaii and perpetuated mainland caricatures of Hawaiʻi as a place of grass shacks, white sandy beaches, lovely hula maidens, and happy dancing natives.
Words/Music – Tommy Harrison, Bill Cogswell, Johnny Noble
Produced By – Rand Anderson
Lead Vocal, Guitar – Jake Staron
Fiddle – Markus Mars
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Bass – John Krylow
Hawaiian Resophonic Guitar – Greg Sardhina
Mandolin, Backing Vocals – Rand Anderson
Track 11 – “Puamana”
Annie Kahalepouli Bastel Shaw and Charles Kekua Farden were married in 1897 and lived in Lahaina, Maui. In 1915, they built a home on a piece of Front Street property that was already named Puamana. They gave that name to their new house, a house that they filled, over the years, with 11 beautiful and talented children. One morning in 1935, one of those children (who was by then a Moloka‘i school teacher who had returned to Puamana for a visit) found herself sitting at the family piano and playing a tune that she had never heard before. The tune appealed to her, so she gathered her siblings together and asked for help in writing the words for a song about their home. When their father came home for lunch, they gave him their ideas, in English, and he responded in Hawaiian. That school teacher was named Irmgard (our Aunty Irmgard Farden Aluli), and her song was “Puamana.”
After the death of Annie and Charles, the house was leased and eventually sold. The original house was torn down and a two-story house was built in its place. Later, that house was also removed and the current Puamana Condominium Resort was constructed. In 1980, the only reminder of the Farden home was a row of coconut trees on the ma kai side of the property. When the Farden children were young, each had to plant and care for a coconut tree. As the children grew, so did their trees. As “Puamana” tells us, the family often gathered under those trees, and on moonlit nights they would play their instruments and sing their favorite songs.
Puamana can mean “divinely powerful flowers or children,” but to the Farden family, it means “the home that holds its members close.” Although this home no longer exists, its memory continues to hold the Fardens close. A more recent song by Aunty Irmgard says:
Gone are our parents
Home Puamana no longer remains,
Yet in each one of us, the music soars
Touching each new child as the family grows.
Puamana
Kuʻu home i Lahaina
Me nā pua ʻala onaona
Kuʻu home i aloha ʻia
Kuʻu home
I ka ulu o ka niu
ʻO ka niu kū kilakila
(He) napenape mālie
Home nani
Home i ka ʻae kai
Ke kōnane a ka mahina
I ke kai hāwanawana
Haʻina
ʻIa mai ka puana
Kuʻu home i Lahaina
I piha me ka hauʻoli
Words – Charles Kekua Farden
Music – Irmgard `Äluli
Arranged & Produced – Rand Anderson
Lead Vocals, Slack Key Guitar – Stephen Inglis
Backing Vocals – Kela Sako
Bass – John Krylow
Banjo – Scott Vestal
Hawaiian Steel Guitar – Bobby Ingano
Guitar, Mandolin – Rand Anderson