FEBRUARY 27, 2008

HAWAIIAN SLACK KEY GUITARIST RAYMOND KALEOALOHAPOINAʻOLEOHELEMANU KĀNE DIED

Kāne, born on October 2, 1925, in Koloa, Kauaʻi, grew up in Nanakuli on Oʻahu’s Waiʻanae Coast. His middle name meant “the voice of love that comes and goes like a bird and will never be forgotten.” A welder by trade, Ray learned the slack-key guitar style as a boy and traded fish for guitar lessons. After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he returned to Hawaii, performing mostly for family and friends. In the early 1960s, Ray began recording both his own compositions and traditional songs. In 1973, he gave what may have been the first solo slack-key guitar recital, at the University of Hawaii. The concert brought renewed attention to the style. Kāne’s thumb-forefinger approach employed several tunings. His sound is described as nahenahe (sweet sounding). Internationally known as a master of the slack key guitar, Ray released 13 albums and received a 1987 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Kāne died in Honolulu.

Sources:

Margalit Fox, “Ray Kane, Master of Slack-Key Guitar, Dies at 82,” The New York Times, 3/5/2008.  Retrieved 10/20/2023, Ray Kane, Master of Slack-Key Guitar, Dies at 82 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Wikipedia

Photo: Jeff Kubina, 8/15/1995. Permissive use under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en