The Steel Guitar Forum

Some rare recordings have come to light since Letritia's passing.




The Kohala Girls circa 1934 featuring Letritia Kandle on National Tricone Resophonic



The Kohala Girls play "Mother's Lullaby" - with Vocal
http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track04.mp3

The Kohala Girls play "Chile Blues" - Instrumental
http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track05.mp3

Letritia Kandle on steel guitar - possibly with the Chicago Plectrophonic Orchestra from the 1940s



Letritia Kandle Plectrophonic 1
http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track06.mp3

Letritia Kandle Plectrophonic 2
http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track07.mp3

Letritia Kandle recordings on National Grand Letar - Paul Whiteman Orchestra radio broadcast interludes - Drake Hotel, Chicago, 1937



http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track08.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track09.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track10.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track11.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track12.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track13.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track14.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track15.mp3

http://76.12.147.135/audio/Track16.mp3



Read the story of the 2008 restoration of Letritia's Grand Letar in this earlier post:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=120173



Enjoy!

John Norris

Hello forum friends-
Many have asked in the past few years if any recordings of Letrita existed? In the days following her passing, Her son discovered several old 78 RPM transcription discs with some rare vintage performances, recorded in the mid-1930s thru the early 1940s.
Links to which are provided above.
I'm sure that Letritia would be overjoyed to know that the steel guitar community is now able to hear recordings of her work from long ago.
Enjoy!
PW

Paul

WOW
Thanks for sharing

Ron

For anyone interested, the "Talking Steel Guitar" was invented and used by Alvino Rey in his big Pop Band back in the 30's. Google Alvino Rey and you can see old movies of Alvino and the Talking Guitar.

Paul and John, Thanks very much for all the great work and dedication you have done to preserve
the life work of this great lady and musician.
Those tracks are priceless.
Maybe she also influenced Alvino Rey?
Blake

Farewell Blues has all of Alvino Rey's tricks in it, including pedals, and talking guitar.. then the announcer says "Thank you Alvino Rey" so I don't think that is Letricia. (...same on Stormy Weather)

An error was made and it was detected by Earnest B., apparently the recordings with the Navy Pier Dance Band were performed with Alvino Rey and have been removed so as not to appear as Letritia Kandle's work.
Letritia told me that she played many concerts in aid of the War Bond effort, these shows were also broadcast on the radio. Undoubtedly Alvino Rey also played for the War Bond effort.
Her son mentioned something about one disc without a label or having an illegible label. I will notify her son Bill of the mistake.
PW

Thanx for posting the Kandel recordings, that puts the cherry on top of her incredible story.

Paul, for those of us that missed and would like to also hear the rare Rey recordings, could you post them on a separate thread, please?

I wish to find out did Letritia play on the Paul Whiteman LP on the Grand Award Label "Hawaiian Magic" 1956
There were 2 Versions, original GA 33-208.... 33-356 (Had 2 extra tracks) is it Letritia Kandle

Hi Basil,
According to Paul Warnik, who spoke to Letritia extensively about her career, by 1954 she had left the music business, so its unlikely that she was on the record you mention unless the recording session took place a year or two before the release.

John Norris

Did anyone save these MP3s as they are no longer available via the links in the first post and I'd love to hear them?

Hi Jeff
By luck I did save them-

Try this:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c1yu04strn7su0k/ZnuX2bbIci?m


I will leave it up for a while to give everyone a chance to download them.

Jay

Jay,

Thanks for posting this, I had almost given up hope on hearing these. Let us know when you take them out of dropbox, and I'll make them available elsewhere.

I've been looking forward to this for awhile!

I'll leave them up for a while-

Jay,

I'm glad you saved the Letretia Kandle files, and that they are still up as of June 11, 2020. I will look forward to listening to these.