Post #200176 by T_lifehater on Sat, Nov 26, 2005 9:43 PM

Yeah- it's a shame we didn't talk sooner. I play with some really sweet people over here. You could have gotten a chance to kanikapila a little. I have a young friend that is kind of a prodigy- he's a son of one of my close freinds and his family is from Niihau- and he's just a hoot to play with. Put any instrument in his hand and he's proficient. Also occassionally a couple hip-hop guys I know come home from playing on Oahu and revert back to their outer-island personas and we just jam all night on my lanai. There's a long list of talent roaming around here- mostly carpentering or gardening and generally taking their gift for granted but whatever- fame and fortune isn't always what it's supposed to be anyhow. They'll probably live longer doing things the way they are. But yeah- it's pretty fun playing uke and guitar here- you get a LOT of opportunities in all sorts of places.

There's a guy here that builds the sweetest ukes- I can't remember his name but I'll dig up his web address. I think it was Kailua-Kona Ukelele company or something generic like that. I do interviews and photography and I was interviewing Gaylord Vermilyea (old surfer/shaper/hobie guy and all around great tenor UKe guy also- learned along with Peter Moon from a Haole by the name of Frank "Tex" Cash. That's a piece of trivia most people dont posess- an underground uke legend.) and anyway Gaylord turned me on to the guy that makes the sweet sounding Ukes. I had a chance to play one and it was not too far removed from the sweet sound of a 40s Martin Tenor (My favorite ride and no- I don't have one. It's high up on the wish list.) Also there's a guy named elvin here- local guy- that builds really sweet solid body electrics. Super perfect little pieces of work. Iz had two of em. (Incidentally- the kid Zack that is the prodigy is one of Iz's second cousins- grand nephew to the late Moe Keale. No wonder he's got it in his blood, yeah?)

Too bad.
Oh well- next time.