See Also: Local Folk and Local Folk Lyrics
PINEAPPLE ROAD The happy side of the road on the plantation. A proud rooster crowing, red bandanas, rubber boots and yellow trucks sending up red clouds across a land of a million pines... pineapples that is ! Jimmy Dole planted his pineapples on a two acre plot of Wahiawa red dirt back in 1900 and the rest is history. You could say, "there's gold in them thar hills!" Mandolin picking and OAHU steel guitar compliment the images of pineapple pickers in the red dirt fields. `AINA In this song I give voice to this aina that God created to outline the importance of the land to our island people. " I am red hot rock turning coal black in the ocean... shoulders on these roads you carve across my back... a resting place for bones of those long gone." Take care of our island home. "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono." God bless you all ! LOCAL FOLK A funky groove to a troubadour’s chronological observation of what a person might see if they were to live on the shores of Pearl Harbor for the last 120 years or more... the immigrants, the missionaries, the USS Arizona, the quest to survive in paradise. Local folk in these islands and away on a far shore... bonded by more than location, talking story, remembering small kid times and preserving the old folk ways. Aloha lives here, in the hearts of the local folk! BIG ISLAND A Spanish two stepper... acknowledging the Spanish-Mexican "vaqueros" who came to these islands to teach their cowboy skills to our paniola. "Proud to see them take the reins... and carry on the cowboy way... that they brought here to Big Island". BLUE TARPO’LIN Its a desperate situation, but the folks living on that seam of sand and surf are making the best of it... living in blue tarpaulein affordable homes and dreaming about a house on the promised land. "From the trees I’m gonna hang me a blue tarp roof... twenty by ten, guaranteed water-proof... don’t need walls cause I ain’t got a door... sand between my toes makes a real good floor." SWEPT AWAY (1946 Hilo Tidal Wave) A true story that accounts for the vast expanse of green grass parks along Hilo bay shores. On April Fool’s Day, 1946 a harbor wave roared in at sunrise... " Hilo bay waters receded, as the people ran down to the shore... to marvel at mother ocean exposing her secret sea floor". A lot of good folk were lost that day as "the tiny town by the ocean got swallowed up by its bay". Hawaiians say, "no turn your back on the ocean!" CHEYENNE WAIOMINA In 1908 a handful of Hawaiian cowboys attended the World Steer Roping Championship at Cheyenne, Wyoming. "They had to come east to go west" where 12,000 people cheered as Ikuwa Purdy took the breath from those cowboys away and won first place. The victorious kanaka also placed third and sixth! The Hawaiian cowboy legacy is unique, and it began 40 years before the California Gold Rush. Gordon wrote a story entitled PANIOLA O KA PAKIPIKA which can be found on page 235 of CHICKEN SOUP from the SOUL of HAWAI'I. STANDING IN DA UA The "ua" is the rain which Hawaiians count as a blessing... "lost without your love". HALEIWA BYPASS BLUES We used to pass through Haleiwa on every North Shore drive... but a new road bypasses the entire town now... A cool sign was carved out to point the way to Haleiwa at the stoplight, but someone stole that first sign... maybe it's a headboard in someone's bedroom by now. Look for that sign to Haleiwa and stop by and park your car. Have lunch and cruise a while. "In a blink of an eye, you might miss those guys with the Haleiwa Bypass Blues". BLAZIN’ PADDLES Six canoe paddlers... "sculptured brown bodies, poetry in motion... minutes and hours mark the miles left behind... leaving no traces, no tracks on these waters... three quarter time gets that bow ‘cross that line". Imua! Me ka lanakila! Forward victoriously! Canoe paddlers practicing back and forth across our shores are a common sight... preparing for the treacherous 41 mile channel between Moloka'i and Oahu. HOLUALOA We used to take the long winding Hualalai road all the way up mauka (mountain side) til we hit the Mamalahoa highway. The sign welcomes you to the sleepy coffee town Holualoa. My Dad hails from Kamalumalu, a short stretch to the right... and my mom comes from the left side, a short run beyond Pauls Place store... the hub of Holualoa, our hometown. Cowboys and coffee pickers... and lots of aloha! PANIOLA YODEL I was inspired by (and fortunate to work with) Uncle Sol K. Bright, composer of "Hawaiian Cowboy"...and den, I wrote this song especially for my Dad... the greatest cowboy I’ve ever known and my hero to this day! Get ready for a free yodeling lesson. I play my bluegrass shack ukulele while Rocky Sardinha rides shotgun on Hawaiian steel guitar. Sandy and the Simon Says Yodelers echo the yodeling lesson and moo da cow! Paniola is another variation of the more often used word, paniolo. Unlike the Spanish language, it is not a gender oriented variation... some say, just more Hawaiian! CANEFIELD SONG Ewa Beach used to be an endless sea of rustling sugar cane... Now the houses are sprouting up everywhere like weeds. "Down by fire... blessed by rain... times are changing... we are not the same... Progress city... concrete plain... winds of change, blew down the cane..... All that is left of an old memory... are the red dirt stains on that white concrete." In the name of progress, we are all moving on to this cane field song ! I play my acoustic guitar and the dobro on this cut while an instrumental version is featured by John Valentine on his GUITARS of HAWAII TODAY, Volume One... my Fender Telecaster takes a ride on the tail end of that one...geee HAW! WILD PIG HUNTER Hawaiian folklore tells us a story of a great boar demi-god who pushed up the islands from the bottom of the ocean with his enormous snout... he fell for the volcano goddess and she put him off til he beat her raging fires down to embers of love.... she reluctantly gave in... "Razor sharp tusks, red eyes agleam... a black locomotive with a full head of steam... The black mountain spirit of the Big Island hills blends into the shadows when he’s standing still..." Wild pig hunters go where only the strong survive! Hey, Garth! SURFIN’ This is an unplugged camp fire version of my North Shore alternative surf song. All about appreciating the elements of nature and weaving the endless seam of sand and surf into the fabric of our lives. SING HAWAIIAN SING One of my first compositions to be recorded, by a group of Kamehameha School braddahs... Trevor, Iolani, Alden & Kanamu..of Kawaiola! The kachi kachi version, featuring the band Nueva Vida, is on their "Life Giving Waters" album. I saved this version for the Brothers Cazimero while the Kawaiola one seems like a match for Loyal Garner...smiLe! On this cut my backup crew is Greg Sardinha on steel guitar, William Baba Alimoot on upright bass and a blend of fine "local children" singing their roots off... "Sing Hawaiians, Sing... Be proud and let your voices ring!" The final voices that wrap up the Local Folk project came from our young ohana singers, Lindsey Wong, Whitney Wong, Marla Miranda, Melissa Miranda, Leia Leong, Shane Go, Brada Alimoot, Sam Alimoot, U'ilani Alimoot, Makani Apuakehau, Stephanie Hokulani Freitas, Angela Mahealani Freitas & CheriLynn Gloria Momilani Freitas. It was really neat having our own keiki o ka aina experience first hand what we do in a recording studio. I am so proud of them. They were terrific... they are the reason I write songs that perpetuate our memories... they are LOCAL FOLK!
© Copyright 2004, Gordon Manuel Freitas |
