Hawaiian steel guitar podcast from the Smithsonian

[Norman Markowitz]

A very interesting podcast from the Smithsonian about Joseph Kekuku, who invented the Hawaiian steel guitar. It traces the importance of the Hawaiians and this instrument in regards to the beginning of country music and blues.

https://www.si.edu/sidedoor/ep-19-aloha ... PiB95O7-EY

[Brad Bechtel]

Thanks for sharing!

[David Matzenik]

Thanks Norman for the link.

The general idea, that country music blues historians have overlooked the Hawaiian influence, is well enough presented, but there is one factor that was not discussed by Troutman, and I am guessing he is younger than I, because I remember it clearly.

The blind spot affecting the musicology was reinforced by the fact that after half a century of popularity, Hawaiian music by 1955 was "on the nose." It was considered just about as "square" as any fashion can get. If you grew up in those days, you will remember that perspective.

After WW2 general musical tastes widened in everything from Bebop to the Beatles. Hawaiian music was associated with the era of Big Crosby and vaudeville. It is no wonder that in 1965, blues enthusiasts didn't want to hear about Son House's Hawaiian reference.

The 1970s were not much different. American film and TV of that period would often parody Hawaiian music as an old-time novelty, and this denigration extended to Hawaii, where, horror of horrors, no one would want to be thought of as old fashioned. So they did away with the Kodak Hula Show, and Hawaii Calls radio broadcasts, as fashion dictated. Enter Bob Marley, to fill the void. They've got palm trees in Jamaica, right?

But parallel to these developments, there had been an explosion of guitar technique, and as my generation of musicians began to mature, some reexamined the Hawaiian Era. I guess everything that goes around, comes around.

I saw Jerry Douglass, the great dobroist, is concert a couple of weeks ago, and one of the first things he mentioned was the Hawaiian origin of his instrument. It is highly unlikely a dobro play would have admitted that, on stage in 1965.

[Mitch Drumm]

No offense to anyone, but ……………ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……….that 30 minute sound file hits every possible social/cultural cliché, complete with the earnest narration and sound bites from academics. What’s the point? Who’s the presumed audience? How many times can you roll your eyes before breakfast?

Could it have been any more predictable or pontificating? If the Smithsonian keeps this up, received wisdom will have a bad name.

[David Matzenik]

No offense to anyone, but ……………ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……….that 30 minute sound file hits every possible social/cultural cliché, complete with the earnest narration and sound bites from academics. What’s the point? Who’s the presumed audience? How many times can you roll your eyes before breakfast?

Could it have been any more predictable or pontificating? If the Smithsonian keeps this up, received wisdom will have a bad name.

Well, yes . . . sort of. I suppose the point is that most people think the steel guitar was invented in Nashville, or somewhere associated with pedal steel.

[Jeremy DeHart]

I think the main point of this broadcast that is highly sensational is that you finally have "mainstream" acknowledgement that the "Didly Bow" argument was based on no imperical evidence and pushed by these Blues historians as a way for the Blues to own slide guitar when in reality it is 100% attributable to enterprising Hawaiians. When I brought up this podcast to a huge blues fan friend of mine he said "They had the didly bow and nobody was chronicling because they were slaves". That's the age-old story from '65, however in the interview the researcher says the historical record does not bear this out. I think that's pretty remarkable.

Very interesting points about the "Old Fashioned" concept David. I hadn't considered this and I can definitely see where this would have been a factor.

[Anthony Lis]

No offense to anyone, but ……………ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……….that 30 minute sound file hits every possible social/cultural cliché, complete with the earnest narration and sound bites from academics. What’s the point? Who’s the presumed audience? How many times can you roll your eyes before breakfast?

Could it have been any more predictable or pontificating? If the Smithsonian keeps this up, received wisdom will have a bad name.

I thought a full day before posting a response, and will likely make no friends from this, but:

1. Many, many people out there have NO idea the steel guitar came from Hawaii; talking with a student in one of my theory classes today about this—an absolute bombshell to him. So, as someone else here said, programs like this are "getting the word out" in that regard.

2. A strange time in our country where "academic" is understood to be "bad"; strange, but "educated," "focused," "learned," etc. are also beginning to take on (or already have) negative connotations, so I shouldn't be surprised.

3. Yes, 30 minutes of narration and sound bites by academics, from academics; yes. So why is this "bad"? Some people just want to use their training/education to get past the 4,234th re-telling of what someone recalled Jerry or Buddy supposedly saying off the cuff at some festival 45 years ago. Yes, there are people out there like that; not many, and sadly, their audience is quite small, unfortunately. However, small audience does NOT necessarily mean academic, elitist, self-impressed; it just means a small audience.

And yes, some "academic" might write a book with little or no input from a steel guitarist IF their focus was, say, old steel guitar patents, old sheet music covers of songs played by early steel guitarists, journal-entries from early gigging Hawaiian vaudeville steel-players, etc. The playing and "so what tuning do you use?" are PART of the story, but NOT the entire story.

Just another way to honor a fine tradition (steel guitar playing) besides repeating the same old bromides, saws, tales, and stories ad nauseum for years and years.

Fire away.

[Scott Thomas]

I thought it was fine. Informative. Sure, it's preaching to the choir here, but then it was made for the the 99.999% of the rest of the population who haven't a clue. In that way, it's a nice little primer which puts the Hawaiian influence front and center again. I've always believed that the blues slide was from the Hawaiian records and performances those guys had to be hearing growing up. But then the influence went both ways. Sol brought a lot of blues into the Hawaiian music repertoire and popularized it.

Thanks for sharing that, Norman!

[John Porcellino]

Thanks for the link! I look forward to checking this out tomorrow...

[Norman Markowitz]

As it pertains to the value of the information in the podcast, not all of us are at the same level of knowledge on any single subject. I found it interesting enough that people were even interested in investigating and disseminating their conclusions and ideas.