John Berger of the Honolulu starbulletin wrote a brilliant article in today’s paper exposing the machine that is known as the Hawaii academy of recording arts. When I say machine, I am referring to something that is generally predictible and will normally do what you expect it to do. He suggests that based on previous winners, we can expect more of the same at this years Nā HōkÅ« Hanohano awards ceremony. Amy Hanaiali‘i and Uluwehi Guerreo are both his predictions to win big.

Thank you Mr. Berger! When will it be time to bring new talent into the scene? When will HARA realize that in order for Hawaiian music to live, we need the youth of Hawai‘i to know that they can be recognized? When will HARA realize that we are tired of seeing the same performances by the same people every year? When will HARA realize that we really don’t give a crap that it’s in HD this year but great content is a must? When will HARA realize that teaming up with a group of people with the same old school mentality as the machine itself will not allow our precious hawaiian music to flourish?

We are in turbulent times my friends. Hawaiian music is on shaky ground and we need something to change soon. The youth needs you HARA. When I speak to HARA I am referring to the membership as a whole. The machine must be destroyed and progress restored.

In all fairness, I realize that HARA is making their best efforts to try to keep Hawaiian music alive, but is it working? This years awards will tell us where we are going and how we are doing.

So I say this to the younger generation of musicians. Get off your lazy asses and become a part of HARA. Participate! Go to the awards ceremony and to the workshops on the 28th and 29th. Believe it or not, HARA is in the control of the musicians.

By the way how many times have we seen Amy perform? I think that collectivly we can all predict her wardrobe this year. Let just hope it’s not what she wore at the Grammys.
There I said it!

Hold on to your seats folks, the award for this years Best Hawaiian Music Album Grammy is quite a surprise. Yes folks who would have thought that a Slack Key Guitar album could possibly win a Grammy Award……….Again? When I saw the list I thought I was looking at last years winners because for the life of me I can’t tell them apart anymore. Legends of SKG, Masters of SKG, Treasures of SKG? It’s all the same to me. I guess it’s what the world expects of Hawaiian Music. I thought having a Hawaiian Grammy would be a blessing, but it’s become more of a curse hasn’t it? How is this helping the industry progress? I hope I read the list wrong, but I don’t think I did. I hate to complain about it especially because I want everyone from Hawaii to find success, but it’s either time for someone to break the Slack Key Curse or change the name of the Grammy to the Slack Key Guitar award.

Congratulations Winners:
Treasures Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar
Various Artists
Daniel Ho, George Kahumoku, Jr., Paul Konwiser & Wayne Wong, producers

links:

List of Grammy Winners
Daniel Ho

Technorati Tags: grammy awards, winners, Best Hawaiian Music Album, slack key guitar, hawaii, music, daniel ho, Treasures Of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar

Remember when we did that show regarding Mighty J’s Guitar Player and the comments left on their shout box? Well, I just found this article that might help. I’m just saying.

Technorati Tags: mighty j, hot hawaiian nights, music, hawaii, guitar, kaimi brede

Ok so, Nick Ponce aka Mr. Nick has informed me that I can’t technically say “There I Said It” or use it as a category because I didn’t technically say it. As you may have heard on our podcast episode called “Ponty,” Nick is trying to prove himself as a smart person, but has thus far been unable to do so. This is a feeble attempt on his part to prove his worth as a MENSA member wannabe. So, I would like to go on record by saying that whenever write something on this blog that is categorized as “There I Said It,” I’m actually saying it before I write it. Thank you.

Technorati Tags: Nick Ponce, Mr. Nick, podcast, MENSA

I know this Has nothing to do with our website, but we do talk about it on the podcast almost every show. American Idol, a show that you may not have heard of before, is once again the talk of the town. In this case though it has nothing to do with great singers, but rather a singer who can’t sing but has appeal in other ways such as personality and style. I know you’re thinking that I’m talking about Gwen Stafani right now, but I don’t actually believe Stafani would get past the first round in AI. So, I must be talking about Sanjaya. There’s an article in E! News today that talks about the extremes that fans of American Idol are going through to get Sanjaya off of the show. That is a must Read more »

I’ve been spending some time thinking about EMI and Apples announcement to offer the no DRM thing. On the surface it may seem like it’s a good thing, but is it? Let’s take a look at why it might not seem like the best possible thing for us.

Apple claims in their press release that the non-DRMed versions of the songs will be of CD quality. Well, they’ve claimed that before, but now the files are supposed to be offered at a higher quality. This is a good thing right? I mean I am a studio engineer and personally I almost feel as though all the work I’ve been doing is for nothing. It seems that sound quality is not as important as one might think. Recording music to go to mp3 seems rather ridiculous especially considering that we record our music through high quality studio mics, pre amps, and converters. Add to this the fact that we track at 96khz, 24bit. Who, however, is complaining about the sound quality of music downloaded either from iTunes or from other sites? Obviously considering the decline of CD sales and the increase in the amount of people receiving digital downloads, it would seem as though not very many people are complaining. It would seem, therefore, that no one truly cares about sound quality. In other words the current standard of data compression is “good enough.”

Along with the increase in sound quality, the “deluxe” non-DRMed versions of the songs would be presented at a higher price. In fact 30 cents higher. If you take into consideration Read more »

With Hawai’i Stars in yet another season (with the beautiful Mailani Makainai as a judge,) I thought It would be a great chance to talk about the differences between Karaoke and Professional singers. Last season I really enjoyed listening to Tiffa Garza and her sister Connie Cruz (both of the famous Cruz ‘Ohana) yet, not only are they Professionals, but they went on stage and played their guitar to accompany themselves. Well, if Hawai’i Stars is a “Karaoke” contest, bringing the guitar on stage is just not right, and in fact in my eyes not fair. Well, they didn’t win so maybe it was more unfair to their doing well, but take the unfairness out of the picture and I liked them the best. There I said it, you were thinking it, so you’re welcome.

Well, I’ve been to a few Karaoke bars in my life and have noticed many Read more »

This is funny! I just finished posting the show notes for the new show to this site. As you know I’m pissed at Yahoo. Well here’s the funny thing. I’m actually subscribed to my own show via Yahoo Alerts. Here’s what the email looked like: