Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

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Monday, February 26, 2007 at 11:00 AM EST

Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar

It’s snowing up and down mainland America’s east coast today, and in Chicago, the airport’s been socked in. But way out mid-Pacific, in the balmy Hawaiian islands, snow is not a factor. It’s sunshine and waterfalls and a whole lot of tropical history.

We ditch the snow and head there today; in the sound of the Hawaiian slack key guitar.

Half a century and more ago, the mainland went crazy for ukulele. Now, slack key is king. When the Grammy’s added a Hawaiian music prize two years ago, slack key snapped it right up.

And the musicians who did that are with us today. Charles Michael Brotman and slack key master Sonny Lim, right off the Big Island.

Guests:

Sonny Lim, Slack Key Guitarist and Big Island native, his album is entitled “Slack Key Guitar: The Artistry of Sonny Lim”

Charles Michael Brotman, Producer and Founder of Palm Records, he won the 2005 GRAMMY Award for the inaugural category of Best Hawaiian Music album for “Slack Key Guitar Volume 2″

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