Holiday Video – “Let It Snow” (ovah deah)

Welcome to Kaleponi Records, my musical home on the web. My name is Fran Guidry, and I play kika ki hoʻalu or Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Kaleponi is the Hawaiian word for California, where I live. Ki hoʻalu, or slack key, has a direct link to California history. The guitar was carried to the Big Island of Hawaiʻi by vaqueros from California. You can read more about the history of slack key guitar on the Dancing Cat Records web site.

Slack key guitar is named for the retuning that characterizes the style. Most of these new tunings feature loosened, or slackened, strings which give a deep rich sound.

My personal slack key history goes back to 1999 and my first visit to Hawaiʻi. When we turned on the TV in our Waikiki hotel room I was captivated by the playing of Keola Beamer. I knew in an instant that I had to learn to play this beautiful music. Over the years I've learned from great players and teachers like Ozzie Kotani, Keola himself, Patrick Landeza, Kevin Brown, Cyril Pahinui, Kawika Kahiapo, Raymond Kane, Dennis Kamakahi, and Ledward Kaapana.

Holiday Video – “Let It Snow” (ovah deah)

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

The first video on the new Kaleponi is a New Year wish to you all. I hope you get to spend plenty of time enjoying Hawai`i, Hawaiian music, and slack key guitar in 2012.

We’ve begun a family tradition of a holiday video, and the last couple of years we’ve managed to get to Kailua during December and January, so our greeting has had plenty of island flavor. This year when I started fooling around with my slack key tunings I found a few different traditional Christmas songs that worked well. I wound up with drop C tuning and “Let It Snow” as my project.

These little projects tend to take on a life of their own, with inspiration coming from all directions. This year I found myself watching blizzards and frozen scenes on YouTube while thinking of how lucky we are to be in the tropics, so I sent messages to a few of the YouTubers with those chilly videos and asked to borrow some snowy scenes. These wound up in my video as a contrast to shots of the beach, the palms, the Ko`olau, and our time with friends.

All this contrast got me thinking about some new lyrics for “Let It Snow” but I’m still not willing to share my singing abilities with the world at large. Instead I added the lyrics as titles to the video, so you can sing along in your head.

So here’s our holiday greeting and best wishes for the New Year:

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2012 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.