Beloved Hawaiian slack-key guitar master Gabby Pahinui began his work life as a road crew laborer but eventually caught the ear of the local record industry. He was the first slack-key guitarist to record a hit, “Hi’ilawe”–possibly the first slack-key guitarist to record at all–and in the ’40s and ’50s pioneered slack-key guitar playing to a point it which it came to channel the very soul of the islands. In the 1970s Pahinui and slack-key guitar played an important role in the “Hawaiian Renaissance,” boldly supporting the performance of Hawaiian music as a way inspire Hawaiians to empower themselves culturally and politically. Pahinui isn’t performing this video, but we do get a chance to hear “Hi’ilawe” as performed by some talented street musicians on behalf of Playing for Change, which describes itself as “a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.” Right on!
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
