Lei Nani - Hawaiian Slack Key

"Lei Nani" - "Beautiful Lei"

The lei is one of the most widely recognized features of Hawaiian culture, present in movies and books, advertisements and songs. The lei is the familiar flower garland, but it is much more. The word is a gateway into Hawaiian poetry, where a lei is a song, a lover, a cherished child carried on one's shoulders with their legs surrounding one's neck.

The image of the waters surrounding old Kailua town called a lei to my mind, when I began exploring them "Lei Nani" came to mind as well. This classic hula addresses a lover as a lei and has long been a slack key favorite.

We stayed across Kailua Road from the Kawainui Marsh during our visit, so I explored the jogging path, the Ulupo Heiau, and the perimeter of the marsh, shooting with my waterproof, dustproof, drop proof Lumix TS1. The performance was recorded on the Zoom H2 with a Redhead windscreen, playing my Epiphone EF-500M. The tuning is open G, low to high:
D G D G B D

The final clip is compiled from four performance shots and numerous visits to the marsh for color clips. I edited in Edius Neo Booster.

Please visit http://www.kaleponi.com for more slack key information and free downloads.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• hawaiian
• slack
• key
• guitar
• solo
• acoustic
• kaleponi
• lei
• nani
• kailua
• kawainui
• marsh
• ulupo
• heiau
• zoom
• h2
• panasonic
• lumix
• ts1
• edius
• neo
• redhead
• windscreen

[TDC10000]

Lovely video and commentary. Great work and musicianship, thanks for sharing!

[franguidry]

@TDC10000 Thank you for commenting. I feel lucky to be able to visit Kailua with my guitar and camera.

Fran

[jsterlingb]

Woah, Fran. That was excellent. Great blend of sense of place, environmental commentary, and SWEET Slack Key! Lei Nani is also one of my favourites!!! I'm subscribing...

Best to Lynn.

Aloha jsb

[franguidry]

@jsterlingb Great to hear from you, Sterling. I'll pass along your greeting.

Fran

[MikeFrattoIWeek]

Fran, that is a sweet song. Nice video too.

[franguidry]

@MikeFrattoIWeek Thank you, Mike. Another computer techie who loves music, eh?

Fran

[franguidry]

@Vapor40 Thanks, it's an oldie but a goodie in Hawaiian music.

Fran

[Vapor40]

gorgeous song and video is aewsome to

[franguidry]

Hey, William, thanks. I've been listening to your steel guitar stuff. You must have been captured by the sound of steel like I was by slack.

Fran