Largest Hawaiian Music Festival in the Mainland USA.
Details and tickets: www.slackkeyfest.com
You might ask yourself “what is slack key?” I certainly did. Slack key is Hawaiian music played on the acoustic guitar and performed in a fingerpicking style. You’ve heard it before, though you may not have known it by name. It is called slack key because the guitar strings are loosened or slackened to an open major chord tuning, which provides more melodic sounds. It is relaxing, restorative and played from the heart. Mitch Chang, festival producer and performer, calls it the quintessential sound of Hawaii.
This year’s festival includes:
- James “Kimo” West, 2021 Grammy Award-winner (Hawaiian music is a Grammy category) and winner of multiple Na Hōkū Hanohano Awards (a Hawaiian equivalent to the Grammy Awards). He is also Weird Al Yankovich’s guitarist!
- Kainani Kahaunaele, winner of seven Na Hōkū Hanohano Awards in 2021.
- George Kuo, one of Hawaii’s premier Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar artists.
- Makaha Sons, one of Hawaii’s leading Hawaiian musical groups.
- Sonny Lim, a member of Hawaii’s famous musical Lim family.
- Jeff Peterson, contributed to two Grammy Award-winning recordings and a winner of eight Na Hōkū Hanohano Awards.
- Kamuela Kimokeo, a member of the Na Hōkū Hanohano award winning group Hi’ikua;
- Bryan Tolentino, popular ukulele player who can be heard on scores of recordings for other artists as well as his own Grammy nominated CD’s.
- Hula dancers
- Hawaiian marketplace, free to the public.
Mitch Chang, Event Producer
So often, I am impressed by the people who make these arts events happen. These individuals work day jobs, but they have the passion, vision and drive to bring these unique events to life. Mitch Chang is no exception. He is a self-employed mortgage broker and avid guitarist but has found the time to produce this festival as well as The Los Angeles Ukulele Festival and The Los Angeles International Flamenco Festival. Mitch was born and raised in Hawaii and loved attending the slack key festivals on the island. After moving to California, he found there were no slack key events available, so he created his own. And it became the largest on the US mainland. Fortunately, he had a large potential audience given that the biggest Hawaiian population outside of Hawaii is in LA County, especially in the South Bay.
Melting Pot Origins
Details vary but we know that Mexican cowboys brought their guitars to Hawaii during the 19th century. The Hawaiians adapted the guitar to their own style of Hawaiian music and developed a new genre known as slack key. Steel guitar, more familiar to our ears, was derived from slack key. Ukulele can be attributed to the Portuguese cowboy immigrants who brought their guitars to the island. Steel guitar and ukulele became popular on the US mainland surprisingly fast. Slack key took longer. It remained local to Hawaii during most of the 20th century until the 1960’s then surged in popularity during the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s. It is now considered to be the most genuine expression of Hawaiian spirit and dominates the Grammy category for Hawaiian music.