On a cold spring evening last month, Chicago warmly welcomed Hawaii ukulele phenomenon Jake Shimabukuro to the stage of the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Shimabukuro, 31, played two shows at the renowned music school—one sold out, the one I attended a near sell out. I couldn’t see any flip-flops. But the audience was full of aloha shirts. I felt as if I were back in Hawai’i. 

Shimabukuro became legendary early in his career for his ukulele “fireworks”—rapid-fire strumming inspired by legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. On recent recordings, however, Shimabukuro has focused on showing off the quieter side of his instrument.

His CDs always display meticulous musical craftsmanship—a precision I wondered if he'd be able to maintain in concert.

I left amazed by the range, depth and emotion of his ukulele-playing throughout the 11-song set. Between songs, he’d tell warm stories of their creation, and talk about the family members, friends and heroes who have inspired him.

On “Me and Shirley T,” Shimabukuro talked about how the song was written as an homage to childhood trips to an Oahu restaurant with his parents, where he often consumed too many “childrens’ cocktails.” The audience especially appreciated snippets of other songs he infused in the song’s crescendo—in particular, The Champs’ “Tequila,” which brought a roar of approving laughter.

During “Blue Roses Falling”—an original song, played as a tribute to a friend’s late grandmother—and Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” you could hear each pluck of Shimabukuro’s four-string Kamaka brand uke.

The concert ended with Shimabukuro’s cover of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”—which has become something of a YouTube phenomenon, and was praised by George Harrison’s widow Olivia—and his own “Third String” composition.

Topping it all off post show? Shimabukuro happily signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.

Such a great night in Chicago. My first Jake Shimabukuro concert won’t be my last.

Jake will be touring Mainland U.S. cites from May 25 through July 1. Click here for a complete tour schedule.

Read about Kamaka Ukulele—and Jake's fondness for their instruments—in our May/June 2008 HAWAII Magazine cover feature "15 Things We Love About Hawaii," now on sale in bookstores nationwide or in our digital edition here.

  

Couldn’t make it to Kokua Festival last month?

The entirety of festival co-founder and headliner Jack Johnson’s performance is now online at MSN Music’s IN CONCERT site.

Free.

The bad news? None of the much-buzzed-about set by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, nor any other acts are included.

But you won’t have to endure long waits in line for organic cotton Kokua Fest shirts, pricey beer or veggie wraps. And Matthews and Reynolds make an appearance late in Johnson’s set on a cover of Jimmy Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at 40.”

So make yourself a sandwich, pour a cold one and click here for Jack’s entire 23-song performance from the Waikiki Shell.

If you find yourself needing a break from all the mellowness, check out our on-the-scene posts from Kokua Festival 2008 here.

  

Hawaii singer-songwriter Jack Johnson is Billboard Magazine's most environmentally conscious musician of 2008.

Johnson topped the music industry trade publication’s “Green 10” list, which honors musicians raising awareness of environmental issues, applying earth-friendly actions to their recording and touring, and inspiring peers to do likewise. Billboard editors selected the musicians on the list, released today to coincide with Earth Day.

The "Green 10" was part of an Earth Day-related “Music Goes Green” section in Billboard’s current print and online issues.

Billboard praised Johnson for his annual Kokua Festival concerts—its fifth year of sold-out shows happened this past weekend. All proceeds from the concerts have gone to Johnson’s non-profit Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which sponsors environmental education programs in Hawaii schools.

Johnson also got kudos from Billboard for keeping his touring life green. All concert venues on his upcoming world tour are required to have waste reducing and recycling programs in place. His tour trucks and buses will run entirely on biodiesel.

The magazine also praised Johnson for his Solar Power Plastic Plant recording studio in Los Angeles, which is insulated with used denim, and partially powered by solar energy. Johnson recorded the entirety of his recent chart-topping CD Sleep Through the Static at the studio.

Other musicians on Billboard’s green Top 10 included Kokua Festival alumni Willie Nelson (No. 2), Dave Matthews (No. 4, with his Dave Matthews Band) and Eddie Vedder (No. 6, with Pearl Jam).
 
 

Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival wrapped up its second day of music Sunday night in Waikiki. As promised, here’s writer and Jack fan Jessica Ferracane’s fifth-row-from-the-stage view of Saturday’s sold-out show.

I’m at the Waikiki Shell for the first night of Kokua Festival 2008, standing in a line with about 150 people, trying to buy a $20 festival T-shirt.

The beer lines are far shorter, populated mainly by the boyfriends and husbands of the countless women in line with me. We’re missing Go Jimmy Go on stage. Tragic. But we boogie in place, inching our way towards the 100-percent-organic-cotton proof that we were here. 

Hawaiian singer and ukulele player Paula Fuga goes on stage next. There’s no way I’m missing Paula. So I take a last sip of my husband Steve’s $7.75 beer, leave him in the T-shirt line, and try to find our seats—just five rows back from the stage.

Paula’s soulful lyrics and rich vocals set the late afternoon vibrating with melody. At the end of her set, I scream, “Hana hou!” (Hawaiian for “one more time”) at the top of my lungs.

Steve, like Jack Johnson, is so far nowhere in sight.

When Dave Matthews walks out on stage, shrieking females rush back to their seats with full beers in one hand, veggie burritos in the other, purses bouncing off backsides.

The fans erupt in adulation when Dave opens with “Crazy." Tim Reynolds—his longtime friend and fellow musician extraordinaire—joins him. Dave’s raucous vocals, contagious energy and the duo’s genius guitar riffs soon have everyone on their feet.

It’s Matthews’ first gig at the Waikiki Shell (and in Hawaii), and he’s obviously moved.

“Everything about this festival has a great vibe. It’s beautiful,” Matthews says solemnly to the masses, his normally sarcastic humor put aside.

The crowd erupts again, flashing shaka signs and cameras. Even guys previously content to politely move their heads from side-to-side while their women shake it, shout back, “Aloha Dave!”

It’s all pretty cool.

Steve finally shows up—two T-shirts in hand, with another full beer. It’s too loud to ask where he’s been. And when Jack takes the stage I’m so star-struck I just grab Steve and sing every word to every song— “Better Together,” “Banana Pancakes,” and all those Jack tunes Steve likens to chick flicks. Still, I catch him singing from time to time, too.

Jack’s set stretches into the night for a gloriously long time. He eventually calls his friends on stage: Dave, Tim, Go Jimmy Go, Mason Jennings. But first, Paula Fuga takes the mike again and she and Jack sing “Country Road”—my personal anthem to drive with both hands on the wheel, and keep an eye on the other guy.

At the end of the show, there are more shaka signs and waves of applause. Everyone takes some time to pick up discarded biodegradable plastic beer cups and trash, and put it in the appropriate receptacle on the way out.

Mahalo for your "Kokua," Jack. See you next year!

  

Hawaii singer-songwriter-musician Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival is happening today and Sunday in Waikiki. Our friend, writer and Jack fan Jessica Ferracane, will be at tonight’s sold-out show. She’s promised us a post-concert report and photos. Until then, we’re happy to share her view from the ground of Friday’s pre-Kokua Festival press conference.

Pinch me. I’m in a crowded lunch tent at the Waikiki Shell, and there’s Jack Johnson and his wife Kim noshing on Mexican food with one of their sons. Seated next to them is Dave Matthews with his wife Ashley and their twin daughters. Hawaiian songstress Paula Fuga is standing in line behind me. I try to get her to cut but she’s all “no need, thanks though” with a wide smile.

There’s a casual vibe I’ve never experienced at a press conference. The atmosphere is more baby luau, minus the Heineken.

It’s a good vibe. And it’s for a good cause, too.

The Kokua Festival is a benefit for the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which supports environmental education in Hawaii schools. And festival and foundation co-founders Jack and Kim Johnson, and their eco-conscious dream team, take their commitment to the cause seriously. The festival is as environmentally responsible as it can be.

There are water stations throughout the Waikiki Shell grounds so concertgoers can refill their water bottles. Recycling, food waste and composting stations are also set up. Generators are powered by bio-diesel. Organic cotton concert tees—and other sustainable products—will be on sale in a Kokua Village concertgoers pass through on the way to their seats.

After lunch, the press conference begins. There are reporters representing everything from Sunset Magazine, to BBC Radio, Surfer’s Path Magazine, Honolulu TV stations and print publications, and Australian and Japanese media.

Jack is center stage, seated at a long table. He is sandwiched by Kim on his left; and fest musicians Matthews, Fuga, Tim Reynolds, Mason Jennings and members of local reggae-ska band Go Jimmy Go to his right.

They tell us that Kokua Festival, now in its fifth year, is striving to be the first zero waste music festival in Hawaii. They hope to inspire organizers of other music festivals to do the same.

Kim Johnson can clearly articulate the educational and environmental impact of the festival she helped create. But most questions from the press are directed at Jack. One “reporter” in short surf trunks and a bikini top exposing well-sculpted silicone enhancements, gets the rest of us snickering after asking Jack a breathy question that’s already been asked and answered by Kim.

No time to ponder that, though. I’ve got to pull out my organic cotton outfit and get ready for Saturday’s show.

  

You ask. We answer.

A couple of readers wrote, lamenting that they couldn’t attend Jack Johnson's Kokua Festival shows in Waikiki this weekend.

This is the fifth-annual go-round of Johnson’s music festival, happening this Saturday and Sunday at the Waikiki Shell. Johnson, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds  headline, with Mason Jennings and Hawaii acts Paula Fuga and Go Jimmy Go as support.

Tickets for the fest sold out mere hours after going on sale in February. We’re sad for our readers that, unlike previous years, this year’s concerts won’t be streamed live on the Web.

Ally Estrada of Wichita, Kansas, asked which music acts had played each Kokua Festival, and whether we thought attending next year was worth a trip to Hawaii.

Let's answer those two questions in reverse order, Ally.

We think exploring the scenic wonders, cultures, food, activities and everything else we have to offer in Hawaii is always worth a visit, period. However, as long-term residents, we may be biased.

You might also be swayed by the fact that all the cash (minus Ticketmaster fees) goes to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation—the nonprofit founded by Johnson and his wife Kim to support Hawaii-based environmental education programs.

Hope that helps, Ally.

The four words of advice you really need if you want to go to Kokua Festival 2009, tho?  BUY. TICKETS. RIGHT. AWAY. We're talking the-minute-they-go-on-sale.

We'll post the date as soon as we know.

And here’s the answer to your first question, Ally. Jack, no surprise, played every one of the fests.

Kokua Festival 2007
April 21 & 22 @ The Waikiki Shell
Eddie Vedder, Ernie Cruz Jr., Matt Costa, The Girlas

Kokua Festival 2006
April 19 @ Maui Arts & Cultural Center, April 22 @ The Waikiki Shell
Willie Nelson & The Planetary Bandits, Ben Harper, Henry Kapono, Paula Fuga & The One Love Ohana Band, Animal Liberation Orchestra

Kokua Festival 2005
April 13 @ Maui Arts & Cultural Center, April 16 @ The Waikiki Shell
Jackson Browne, John Cruz, Ozomatli, G. Love & The Special Sauce, Kawika Kahiapo & Kaukahi

Kokua Festival 2004
January 3 @ Blaisdell Arena (original location at Kualoa Ranch was rained out)
Amy Hanaialii Gilliom & Willie K, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Makana, DJ Logic

For more Kokua Festival information, click here.
 
 

Hawaiian music's brightest rising star—and two-time Grammy nominee—Raiatea Helm leaves the Islands Thursday for a four-concert West Coast tour.

"This is the first time I've toured just as myself," she says. "The venues are selling well. I'm always interested in meeting the audiences. They have a greater appreciation of Hawaiian music than people in Hawaii."

The 23-year-old vocalist won't be alone--she brings a band of all-star musicians, including pianist Aaron Sala, bassist Steve Jones and slack-key guitarist Jeff Peterson. 

At the San Francisco concert, she will be joined by Patrick Makuakane's Halau Hula Na Lei Hulu i ka Wekiu.

4/12 - Town Hall, Seattle, WA 7:30-9:30 pm
4/13 - Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR 7:30-9:30 pm
4/16 - Shedd Institute, Eugene, OR 7:30-9:30 pm
4/19 - Herbst Theater, San Francisco, CA 7:30-9:30 pm

The Honolulu Advertiser called Helm's latest CD, Hawaiian Blossom, "sonic nirvana." It garnered her a second Grammy nomination for Best Hawaiian album. (Click on album names to sample the songs.)

Helm's 2003 debut disc, Far Away Heaven brought the then 17-year-old singer immediate attention as one of the strongest young Hawaiian vocalists. It also won her a surprise Na Hoku Hanohano music award for female vocalist of the year.

Her more polished second CD, Sweet and Lovely, made her at 21 one of the youngest nominees attending the 42nd annual Grammy Awards.

At that time, The New York Times said, "She sings in the high-voiced throwback leo ki‘eki‘e style without a hint of kitsch. Her second album, Sweet and Lovely is poised and utterly elegant.”

Not bad for a young woman who grew up on rustic, laid-back Molokai.

 

This is the Konan High School Brass Ensemble from Ashiya, Japan. 

It’s a rocking ensemble.  Check out this clip of the band playing today in Bishop Square, downtown Honolulu, outside the Hawaii Magazine offices. 

Honolulu has become a crossroads for East and West, so it’s no surprise that Konan High does a yearly band exchange with an O‘ahu school, Le Jardin.

On Monday, the Konan Brass played the Battleship Missouri Memorial.  In other words, they performed in the shadow of the USS Missouri.  And it was onboard the Missouri, on Sept. 2, 1945, that Japan surrendered, bringing World War II to a close. 

We like the symbolism—the Missouri Memorial is currently home to a “Parade of Bands.”  Continuing through June—and during a second season from Nov. 11 until Dec. 7—more than 2,000 students from more than 40 bands perform at the Memorial.

For more information about the Parade of Bands program, contact Bobi Baclaan, special events coordinator, at (808) 455-1600 ext. 247 or email bobib@ussmissouri.org.

 

Today, we’re celebrating Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Piikoi’s birthday in the Islands.

Much of the Hawaii the world sees today can be traced to the work of Prince Kuhio. His determination and passion for the Islands and its people led him into a life of public service. He served as Hawaii’s second congressional delegate from 1903 until his death in 1922.

There’s a more complete story on Prince Kuhio’s life and the impact he had on Hawaii in the March/April 2007 issue of HAWAII Magazine. 

Across the state, schools are closed, city transportation operates on a holiday schedule and many people have the day off today to honor Hawaii’s beloved prince. Services were held early this morning at Oahu’s Royal Mausoleum, the Prince’s final resting place.

If you’re on Oahu this weekend, activities include the annual Prince Kuhio parade on Saturday in Waikiki, which starts at 4 p.m., followed by a moonlight concert at 6 p.m.

If you’re on Kauai, there are many Prince Kuhio celebrations scheduled throughout the weekend.

Another reason to honor Prince Kuhio? Without him, we wouldn’t have King Kamehameha Day—the only other state holiday dedicated to Hawaii’s royalty.

 

Amazon.com, with some help from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, has gone live with the Jack Johnson Amazon.com® Hawaii Fly-Away Sweepstakes.


If you’re available to travel April 18 through 20, you can win airfare to and a hotel room for two in Hawaii.  Plus two tickets to Jack Johnson’s Kokua Festival, which has been sold out for more than a month.  Joining Johnson will be Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Paula Fuga, Go Jimmy Go and Mason Jennings.

Costs nothing to enter. Enter here by midnight April 3.