Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 30 Sep 2008 9:14 am |
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This past Sunday I was lucky enough to see the Sweet Hollywaiians from Osaka, Japan, performing in concert at Mike DaSilva's DaSilva Ukulele Company in Berkeley. They play old string band music in the same vein as the Cheap Suit Serenaders, but they dress the part, with high waisted pants, white shirts, suspenders, and short wide ties. Besides their sartorial elegance, they do a very fine job on the Hawaiian and jazz tunes they play.
Tomotaka "Jiro" Matsui is a fine steel player, playing a vintage National tricone in an unusual tuning (bass to treble A C# E F# B D). He also did a fine job on a National tenor guitar.
Nobumasa Takada played a variety of instruments, including guitar, tenor banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin and ukulele.
Takashi Nakayama was a fine guitarist and a hot ukulele player.
The bouncy bass of Kohichi Tsutsumishita kept the beat going quite well.
For their second set, the Sweet Hollywaiians were joined by Cheap Suit Serenaders Robert Armstrong on tricone steel guitar and musical saw and Tony Marcus on guitar and violin. Although the sound was somewhat loose, it was a fine sounding set, with Marcus and Armstrong's vocals adding a lot to their overall sound.
The ukulele shop was packed, with people jammed in among the various pieces of wood, band saws, and other accessories. It was a great place to see a show, and I will definitely go there again if he has someone I want to see.
http://www.myspace.com/sweethollywaiians shows them on a tour of the West Coast, with shows in Los Angeles coming up next.
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Don Kona Woods
From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
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Posted 30 Sep 2008 9:44 am
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The Hollywaiians did a nice job on an old traditional Hawaiian song, U'i Lani. It had a nice Hawaiian touch to it. 
There are quite a few Hawaiian groups in Japan. The Japanese really seem to like Hawaiian music.
As I have said before, half of the steel guitar players in the 2007 HSGA convention in Hawaii were Japanese.
Lion Kobayashi, a Master Teacher in Japan, has been instrumental in teaching young new Japanese students the Hawaiian steel guitar.
Thanks for posting it, Brad.
Aloha, 
Don |
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