Post #491535 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 2:14 PM

While I love Slack-Key guitar music and am glad it's being played in more Tiki bars today, I'm of the same mind as Lucas V. in that I don't think it was a big influence on the original Tiki scene because it was never really a "pop" influence in the 50s or 60s.

You get a good barometer of what types of music were swirling around the popular zeitgeist at the same time as Exotica music, when you check the boxes of records at garage and estate sales every week. "Lounge" and "Hawaiian" (hapa haole) records are really common and must have had a huge influence on people's escapism of the time. "Exotica" records are a fairly common as well, but less so. "Surf" was in the mix too, but less common than Exotica.

Only rarely will I stumble upon an old Gabby Pahinui or Sonny Chillingworth record, and those were usually owned by serious audiophiles who often had a lot of Classical and Folkways records in their collections.

I didn't really notice Slack-Key until the 1980s when George Winston started reviving the old artists and promoting the Pahinui brothers again on his Dancing Cat label. It's nice to see the music finally being given more attention.