Wa'Ahila
Ray Kane is the international ambassador of slack. Still teaching and performing at age 72, Kane started his career at the age of nine. Slack key guitar gets its name from the way the artists tune, or "slack," their guitars to accommodate different songs in different keys. Kane's second disc on Dancing Cat (the fifth of his career) is part of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters series produced by George Winston for Dancing Cat Records. Winston has been recording hundreds of songs and instrumentals by all the greatest slack key guitarists since the mid '80s. The present release is from sessions recorded in the early '90s. Kane spins motivic accompaniments and solos with gently pulsing bass lines that go from ingenuous folk, like "Kila Kila 'O Haleakala," to melancholy improv-like "Keiki Slack Key," and "Popoki Slack Key." Kane's rich guitar tone and tremulous baritone voice are stirring and blues-like. He shines on "Hi'ilawe." Wife Elodia debuts on this disc with delicate, pretty vocal support on "Aloha Ka Manini," a lilting folk tune, and on the romantic "Ke Kali Nei Au."--Daniel Ferris