Kika Kila Meets Kihoalu
Bob Brozman, who plays duets on National steel with Kaapana, comes to Hawaiian music via the blues and other traditional mainland folk forms. His work has a busyness, in the best possible sense of the term--the guy's all over the place, though he can also lay back and keep it simple when he wants to; he also has a prickliness that many island steel players don't show. He brings out the best in Kaapana, who plays with a fuller, more virile tone than usual. They reach further back than most of their peers for material and arrangements, too, so this set has the straightforward, benignly sentimental feel of the earliest recorded Hawaiian music. --John Morthland