The Steel Guitar Forum

These guys sound terrific but to my ears their music is crying out for an electric steel guitarist. The metal-body acoustic just doesn't cut it. But they can sure swing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caFazZYyIQ4#t=407

They sure can!!!!!!
Joe Elk

It is a great performance. Any idea od the location? That guitar player is totally overpowered by the band, but I am not sure he is all that dynamic. There are acoustic players who are, but they have to be mic-ed properly like bluegrass dobroists.

Dwight Tokumoto starts off, then Elmer "Sonny" Lim plays steel on the second song then Dwight Tokumoto takes over after that.

The group is called Kahulanui (The Big Dance).

http://kahulanui.com/

Wow, what an interesting blend of Swing & Hawaiian.

our local band here in northeast hawai'i! dwight usually plays a great-sounding post war fry pan with these guys.

Very cool group & sound !!

Sorry folks, I think you'll find this band, though very cool, are miming to a pre recorded track. The big clues are the bass not being plugged in, the lack of a mute on the muted trumpet and...an electric sounding acoustic steel guitar.
Still sounds great though.

of course it's done to playback. owing to the requiements of editorial, virtually all non- documentary music film and video productions are done to playback and always have been.

that said, i would encourage all to see these folks live -- a real treat. da kine!

this band... are miming to a pre recorded track.

Yes, I was going to say that earlier. They're not playing live, there are no mics or cords in sight... so comments about a guitar (or a steel guitar) being drowned out by the band or not playing loud enough have nothing to do with "the performance" in the video. The music was pre-recorded in a studio, so we can assume that the band and the producer mixed the instruments exactly as they wanted them mixed. I'm not criticizing the band at all. Hey, musicians have been miming to pre-recorded tracks in Movies for 75 years!

Exactly. Getting live sound in an outdoor location like that is a nightmare .... cars, wind noise, mics in the shot, etc. It's just not practical. Much of the outdoor dialogue in every film and TV show is replaced later via ADR in a studio so all the sounds you hear are mixed and controllable. Kirk, you could certainly testify on this one!

Have you seen/head the Sweet Hollywaiians?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybzwoqvg4D8

The type of dynamic steel playing that Andy says it was "crying out for" is not present, where ever it was recorded. I still believe you can do some hot playing on a National.