Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 6, 1 June 2010 — An intimate look at the SONS OF HAWAIʻI [ARTICLE]

An intimate look at the SONS OF HAWAIʻI

Eddie Kamae's musieal triumphs inelude being a part of the group Sons of Hawai'i, formed with Gabby Pahinui in 1959. The story of the legendary group, whieh helped launeh the Hawaiian eultural renaissanee, is told in the DVD Sons of Hawai'i, released by Kamae in 2000, as part of his ongoing Ho'okupu Projeet. As Kamae recalls, "We were playing music together, rehearsing at Gabby's house and Joe Marshal just showed up to say hello. He didn't have his instrument. Gabby told him, 'Marshal, go home get your bass and eome back.' When he eame back we rehearsed. Then I said we need one more person for the right sound." Marshal knew a steel guitar player named David 'Feet' Rogers, who was only 16 at the time and lived in Kalihi. They went to see his father. Eddie said: "The old way is you respect the elders. I went in and introduced myself. I asked his permission. Could your son eome and join us because we just formed a group, and we needed a steel player? His father said, ' Yes, my son ean go with you, but he doesn't have a steel guitar. He ean have mine.' That's when we got together. Then in Waimānalo at Gabby's house, we went through all our material and Gabby said: Eddie you run the business this first year, Marshal you the second year and I take the third year." Newly formed, the group went to the Sandbox and the manager asked if they would like to start performing there the next weekend. That was their first gig and they were on their way. "The first night was a little slow," Kamae says. "The second night on, it was always packed." ■

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